We are a group of football fans from different countries, supporting different clubs. We love football and are concerned about the climate emergency. We want to protect the game we love. 

A ban on sponsorship and ad deals with big polluters
Companies that sell high-carbon products are under pressure. Their products are polluting and we know it. Many of them have a track record of blocking climate action. These companies use football, the game we love, to sell their products and protect their image. We need to kick them out of our beautiful game. Clubs should do this themselves, but we need regulations by football bodies to achieve structural change. This can be done by a fossil ad ban, as they are already adopted in many cities. A fossil ad ban follows the example of the tobacco ad ban.

A smaller, smarter football calendar
Professional football needs to lower its climate impact. The current practice of an ever expanding international football calendar, with ever more and bigger tournaments is not the way to go. Not for players and not for the planet. A smaller and more regional international football calendar will allow for more sustainable team and fan travel.

Clubs can also do a lot in and around games. They can help facilitate sustainable fan travel. They can offer more plant-based food options. They can lower the amount of new jerseys and choose sustainable production practices. They can use renewable energy in and around the stadium.

They can lead by example, an example that will be seen by many.

We target the big polluters that try to keep us addicted to fossil fuels and stop necessary climate action. These are fossil fuel companies themselves, airlines, car companies still betting on petrol cars and SUVs, banks that keep financing fossil fuel expansion and cryptocurrencies using enormous amounts of dirty energy.

Football is influential. Clubs and players have a huge international following. Polluting companies love to use this platform to sell products and associate themselves with such a popular and healthy social activity. Seeing those sponsors and ads when you watch a football match, makes them look normal. Sponsor and ad deals between polluting sponsors and sports create a ‘social license to operate’ for these dirty companies.

Extreme weather events are becoming more regular and more extreme because of global warming. Heat, extreme rain and long droughts have an enormous impact on players, supporters and the pitches on which we play the game.

These impacts are different in different countries and how bad they become, depends on the actions we take in the coming years.