Green steps trampled by polluting sponsors at EURO2024

Small green steps are being trampled by promoting polluting sponsors at football’s European showcase, EURO2024. Back at the international climate conference in 2023, COP28, UEFA (European football’s governing body) and the organisers of EURO2024 explained how their tournament would be "the most sustainable European Championship of all time". Now, Badvertising, Fossil Free Football and Game Changer have come together to scrutinise this claim. After the last Euros - staged across 11 countries -  seemed almost designed to maximise the climate pollution from travelling teams and fans - we looked into what EURO2024 has done better and where its green claims force a face-palm. 

Unfortunately the eco hype falls flat at first glance. Pop onto UEFA’s EURO2024 home website and right at the top of the page is an advert for competition sponsor, the oil state of Qatar, over 80 percent of whose government revenue comes from heavily polluting fossil fuels. Promoting Qatar is problematic for multiple reasons, including its record of human rights abuse, its role in the lobbying and corruption scandal at the European Parliament, and false green claims alongside FIFA over its hosting of the 2022 World Cup. 

Some positive steps taken to reduce climate warming pollution at EURO2024 are cancelled-out by the tournament’s widespread promotion of polluting sponsors. Given the deep threat football faces from the climate crisis, the tournament’s huge platform should be used to accelerate not obstruct the shift away from fossil fuels. Efforts to encourage behaviour change around consumption and transport must become the norm for future tournaments, and EURO2024 is encouraging train travel by fans by offering free local public transport as part of the match ticket and discounts on longer routes. 

At the stadium, lower impact vegetarian meals will be on offer. Importantly and something which could be a model for other sports to follow, tournament organisers lowered travel pollution by regionalising the group stage match schedule. This makes more sustainable travel easier for teams and takes away an excuse for flying. Organisers have reportedly asked teams to avoid flights. But sadly, only Germany and Switzerland have so far pledged to travel by coach or train in the group stage. 

But then the problems kick in. EURO2024’s official sponsors include Visit Qatar and Coca-Cola. Apart from Qatar’s sponsorship being problematic due to the reasons outlined above - well documented human rights abuses, false green claims on the World Cup and misleading climate statements - Visit Qatar directly promotes intercontinental tourism which inevitably drives-up pollution from flying. For its part, Coca-Cola is the world’s biggest plastic polluter and is known for trying to block action to cut plastic pollution. Plastic is big oil’s back up plan and production could double or even triple in the years to 2050.

Many of the competing national teams are also sponsored by companies that will use EURO2024 to promote their brands and clean up their reputation despite the harmful pollution they cause. Any reductions in the immediate pollution footprint of this brief tournament will be overwhelmed by the pro-fossil-fuel messages being sent to the billions watching worldwide. Some of the world’s biggest carbon polluters, including oil giant Eni, the largest fossil-fuel financier JPMorganChase (sponsor of England and Scotland), major dirty vehicle manufacturer Volkswagen and polluting and greenwashing airlines like Lufthansa will be promoted at the tournament.

It is time for football to heed the call from UN Secretary-General António Guterres to break ties with big polluters by banning fossil ads, and kick polluters off the pitch. Organisers can look to the history of tobacco sports sponsorship to see how antisocial corporations can stopped from normalising harmful products and behaviour to supporters and huge global audiences, and how doing so can have major positive impacts. To provide the safe future that football and everyone relies on, the immense power of the beautiful game has to push for change.