Football fans given ethical advice on Euro 2008

Sweden’s football team was identified as ‘ethically’ the best to support during the upcoming Euro 2008 tournament, according to a ranking that takes into account each country’s carbon emissions, military spending and corruption levels.

As no UK nation qualified for the event, the World Development Movement (WDM), an organisation which campaigns on global justice and development, has found a way to help undecided supporters choose which team to cheer for, based on ethical grounds. 

To help choose the ‘ethically best’ football team to support, the WDM has ranked the countries participating in the European Championships according to the following criteria: carbon dioxide emissions, national income per person, perception of corruption, electricity from renewable energy, happiness, number of multinationals and inequality as well as aid, military and health spending.

According to the overall ranking, Sweden is, ethically speaking, the “most supportable team” at Euro 2008, followed by Austria and Croatia. At the other end, Italy, Greece and Russia bring up the rear.

Rankings by specific subject area show, for instance, that the Netherlands produces by far the most carbon emissions, while Turkey, Romania and Croatia emit the least. As for renewable energy, Austria gets the biggest share of its electricity from renewables and Poland the least. Fans interested in climate change can thus quickly find out which country invests the most in renewables and which has the highest CO2 emissions. 

“Our supportability ranking is not an overall ranking of how ‘good’ or ‘bad’ we think each country is. It is intended to be a fun and interesting way to think about some serious issues,” said WDM policy officer Tim Jones.

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