It’s time for football to embrace sustainable transport
With just over two weeks to go until the first group game of the UEFA European Football Championships we’re still hoping that the England team will be booking their train tickets to Germany, rather than flying…
Back in December, we wrote to the English Football Association and England manager Gareth Southgate to ask them to do just that and take the train to Germany, instead of flying. Since we sent our letter, other European environmental organisations have taken our lead and have also written to their national teams to ask them to take the train rather than flying. Letters have been sent to the French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Swiss, Romanian, Hungarian, Dutch, Solvenian, Czech, Scottish, Italian, Ukrainian, Danish and Polish national teams, and next week we’ll be taking the letter that hundreds of you our supporters have signed to the English FA.
Changing how we travel is critical in our fight against climate change. Football clubs and football players are hugely influential and can help change the way people think about travelling.
Domestic football clubs are starting to think about their impact on the planet and have begun to put in place policies to reduce their emissions. For instance, in February, the Premier League announced its ‘Environmental Sustainability Commitment’, which introduced a minimum standard of action on environmental issues across the clubs and the Premier League as a whole.
But with almost two thirds of Premier League clubs carbon emissions coming from travel to and from games, it’s clear that this is an area that will need tackling if clubs are to reduce their carbon footprint and become more sustainable.
Of course, international football presents even more challenges when it comes to reducing emissions from transport, especially when tournaments can take place on the other side of the world. Thankfully, next month’s Euros are not on the other side of the world and are in fact in a country that is not only within reach of the UK by train, but also has a good rail and road network which could very easily negate the need to fly for many of the scheduled matches.
The German national team has already pledged not to fly during the group stage of the tournament and the Swiss team are taking the bus to their base camp.
We think the England team can also set an example on and off the pitch by pledging to take the train or coach whenever feasible during the tournament.
We’ll be sending the signed letter to the FA and Gareth Southgate next week so there’s still time to put your name to it and show your support for a sustainable England team.
Sign the letter calling on the England team to travel to the Euros by train.
Photo above by johnthescone, via Wikimedia Commons
