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February 6 – Football is the world’s most-watched sport, drawing over 220 million fans to stadiums annually and billions more to screens. With such vast influence, the game has the power to drive societal change – yet when it comes to climate action, the sport is failing to step up.
A new report, courtesy of the New Weather Institute in collaboration with Scientists for Global Responsibility, highlights football’s alarming carbon footprint, estimating global emissions from the sport at around 64-66 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent (tCO₂e) per year – comparable to the entire annual emissions of Austria.
Yet, rather than tackling its impact, the football industry is entrenching it further, with three key culprits: lucrative sponsorship deals with high-carbon polluters, an expansion of international fixtures driving up air travel and reliance on controversial carbon offset schemes.
The biggest source of football’s emissions – over 75% – comes from sponsorship deals with fossil fuel corporations and airlines. FIFA and CONCACAF’s partnerships with Saudi oil giant Aramco, along with club deals involving Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways, directly support some of the most carbon-intensive industries on the planet.
The four major sponsorships of the 2022 FIFA World Cup alone accounted for 16million tCO₂e. Similarly, sponsorship deals between European clubs and airlines in 2023 contributed over 8million tCO₂e, with Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Manchester City, and Arsenal among the worst offenders.
These deals function much like tobacco sponsorships of the past, normalising and promoting industries that harm public health and the planet. Unlike tobacco, however, the report argues that the football world has yet to acknowledge the ethical implications of these partnerships.
Beyond sponsorship, the sport’s rapid globalisation is another major climate culprit. International tournaments have led to a surge in air travel, with each match in a men’s World Cup Finals responsible for 44,000-72,000 tCO₂e, 26 to 42 times more than a standard domestic league game. The expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams from 2026 will only worsen the problem.
At club level, the English Premier League alone generates around 1,700 tCO₂e per match, with spectator travel making up roughly half of that. International competitions like the Champions League increase emissions by another 50% per game due to the added air travel.
Despite its impact, football’s governing bodies are alarmingly behind in tracking emissions. The report details that even in leading leagues like the English Premier League and Bundesliga, estimates for the same emission categories can vary by a factor of 10. At international level, no official estimates exist for the emissions from World Cup qualifiers or regional tournaments across most continents.
Football’s response to climate change has been sluggish, with most clubs and associations focusing only on direct emissions (scope 1 and 2), ignoring the far greater impact of travel, merchandise and sponsorship (scope 3). Instead of meaningful action, the industry leans on dubious carbon offset schemes that scientists widely criticise.
The suggested solution? Ending high-carbon sponsorships, curbing unnecessary international fixtures and enforcing robust emissions tracking. If football took climate change as seriously as it takes financial fair play, it could drive real progress. Instead, the sport is playing extra time while the planet runs out of it.
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