Sports Archives

A study conducted in England has listed its football teams according to their environmental performance and four Premier League clubs - Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham - are leading the table. 

Football plays a big role in the lives of many Europeans. Football clubs can reach people on an emotional level, and some use this to raise awareness about sustainability. One such example is Schalke 04, which drives environmental awareness in a traditional German coal region.

The best players in the world are producing at least 505 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year only by travelling, way over the average, a study revealed. 

Salvatore Sirigu and Elena Linari speak about bringing sustainability into football and into their lives.

With thousands of fans travelling to matches and giant stadiums being built, football has a considerable climate impact. Some clubs are increasingly aware of this and try to limit their carbon emissions. A club from the small city of Mainz has been leading the movement for a decade.

Qatar has pledged to host not only the most sustainable World Cup in the middle of the desert, but is already sharing lessons from the event three years before the teams even begin to play.

Paris Saint-Germain's new training centre will be inaugurated in 2022. According to the club, the training grounds will be designed in such a way that PSG will be able to lead by example when it comes to protecting the environment. EURACTIV France reports.

Sports events organisers are becoming more aware of the environmental impact they have and therefore are trying to be more sustainable, including by reducing and reusing plastics. 

The Nepalese government has introduced a ban on single-use plastic on Mount Everest from January 2020 in an attempt to cut down on the trash left by mountaineers in what has turned into the world's highest landfill.

Lesein, a 15-year-old Kenyan, is one of the thousands of youngsters around the globe who have joined Greta Thunberg in her fight against climate change. He has been planting trees for every goal he scores since 2018, as his way of contributing to the fight.

Olympique Lyonnais' newly-built OL City complex has been designed to be more environmentally friendly, though it initially attracted criticism for requiring a longer commute. EURACTIV France reports.

A survey conducted by YouGov shows football fans support for environmental NGOs' call to clubs in the UK top four divisions to eliminate single-use plastics from their stadiums. 

Transport, water and energy consumption, waste management... Sports events, like any  other massive event, have an important environmental impact.

As the “green wave” hit Europe -and national football teams prepare for next year Euro 2020- we look at the carbon footprint of the king of sports: football.

German athletes, associations, clubs and supporters are joining forces to support the ‘Fridays for future’ movement and raise awareness of the need to fight climate change, including by promoting eco-friendly practices in sports management.

The European Union will not ban artificial turf pitches, at least yet, but the European Chemical Agency (ECHA) is looking at alternatives, as this material is an important source of microplastics.

Controlling the social, economic and environmental impact of its activity should be at the core of the administration of a sports venue, managers of the Aviva Stadium in Dublin told EURACTIV in an interview.

A vegan menu, bamboo-made t-shirts, an organic pitch, a stadium 100% powered with renewable energy… in less than a decade, the Forest Green Rovers has become the first carbon-neutral club in the world. EURACTIV interviewed its manager.

Football inspires, it brings people together and is like a religion to some – as we may well see at the Women's World Cup final in France on Sunday. But football also has its downsides: heaps of rubbish, squandering of water and a big CO2 footprint. The Life Tackle initiative now wants to change that.

Outraged by what Ana Gomes, an outgoing MEP with the Socialists & Democrats, says is Rui Pinto’s unjust detention, deep seated corruption in Portuguese public life and the European football industry, she has launched a campaign of support for Pinto.

Eight football teams will duel it out in the foothills of the Caucasus this month to decide which is the best in Europe. But you will not find Germany, Italy or Spain on the match list and none of the teams taking part are fully recognised by the international community.

Spanish football club Real Betis is well known for the colours of its T-shirt, green and white. But now they want to integrate that concept into their whole policy by leading the way in making soccer more sustainable.

Criticism over football carbon footprint erupted as English clubs fans had to travel the world to see their teams playing against each other, thousands of kilometres away from home in Spain and Azerbaijan.