June 8 – FIFA’s vehemently disputed claims that the Qatar 2022 World Cup was carbon neutral has come back to haunt them, with the Swiss advertising authority deciding that FIFA was guilty of misleading consumers.
In a decision released June 6, the advertising authority concludes that FIFA was in breach of the Swiss Federal Law on Unfair Competition.
The Swiss authority said: “FIFA gave the false and misleading impression that the World Cup in Qatar had achieved carbon neutrality before and during the tournament.”
FIFA is a signatory to the UN Sports for Climate Action Framework and has committed to a 50% reduction in emissions by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2040.
To date FIFA has shown little progress towards that target except in its strident PR spin. The clear message coming from Zurich is that FIFA recognises climate change as a problem but there is a difference between perception and reality, FIFA’s position appears to be that it considers itself above having to make a world improving impact on climate change and using its platform to become a leader in good global citizenship in this regard.
Climate change pressure groups argued that the way FIFA claimed to compensate emissions did not even fulfil minimal international standards.
Five groups submitted a complaint with their national advertising authorities in November 2022 – Fossil Free Football and Reclame Fossielvrij in the Netherlands, New Weather Institute in the UK, Alliance Climatique in Switzerland, Notre Affaire à tous in France and Carbon Market Watch in Belgium.
Their complaint was based on a report by Carbon Market Watch which showed FIFA underestimated the emissions of the World Cup, in a big part of which are the emissions from building the new stadiums. FIFA also did not include the 500 daily shuttle flights between Dubai, Riyadh, Kuwait and Doha in its calculation.
The complaint argues that FIFA’s claims misled ticket buying fans and billions of TV viewers worldwide. The complaint demonstrated how famous ex-players played a role in the misleading campaign.
The Swiss advertising authority said FIFA should “refrain in future from making the contested allegations, unless it can provide, at the time of communication, full proof of the calculation, using generally accepted methods, of all CO2 emissions caused by the tournament, and proof that these CO2 emissions have been fully offset.”
Frank Huisingh of Fossil Free Football said: “This is a very important decision. FIFA can no longer mislead the world that its World Cup in Qatar was carbon neutral. Serious climate action by FIFA is long overdue, hopefully this decision pushes them to do better. This must start with breaking ties with big polluters, such as their sponsors QatarEnergy and Qatar Airways.
“The next step is a serious plan to reduce the emissions of its tournaments. That includes choosing locations with existing infrastructure, ensuring fans can travel between host cities with low-carbon transport and focusing ticket sales on local fans.”
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