Fossil Free Football

I'm not sure whether I should write this. It is too harsh? Too soon? I feel a bit uncomfortable writing it, but I thing we also have to address what is uncomfortable. This picture hurts in many ways. Miguel Gutiérrez is a 23-year old left-back at Girona. Yesterday, he scored against Leganés. After his goal, he held up a Girona-shirt with the text "Força Valencia". He did this to support his friend Enrique, whose mother went missing after being carried away by the floods. For me it’s hard to ignore what else we see in this picture. Miguel Gutiérrez is wearing an ad for a very polluting company, Etihad Airways. We seem to have the tendency to respond to these disasters as we did to natural disasters in the past. This is not a bad thing; it often brings out the best in human solidarity, as we can also see in Spain. But this also means we forget to discuss who is responsible for these disasters. They have become more intense (in this case) due to the burning of fossil fuels and the destruction of nature. And we know who did that: fossil fuel companies and their allies, both in business and in politics. They tried and try to stop climate action and mislead the public. Now they are under pressure and they work hard to protect their reputation, including by associating themselves to sport. For example, by sponsoring Girona. Previously, we calculated that a Euro in sponsorship by Etihad leads to at least 42.8 in CO2e emissions (https://lnkd.in/eQCXXUYj). Girona’s deal with Etihad is reportedly worth €2 million a year. So that is 85600000 KG Co2e (the equivalent of 471 railcars’ worth of coal burned) every year, which will lead to more climate disasters and more missing mothers.. To be absolutely clear, the responsibility for football to break up its relationship with the fossil fuel industry lies with its leaders in clubs, national associations, UEFA and FIFA. Not with Miguel Gutiérrez. I hope Enrique’s mother will be found. And that we will end the fossil fuel era soon, to protect everyone’s mother, friend and child. #Girona #Spain #Climate #Football

WORK WORK WORK! Fossil Free Football is a campaign group run by football fans. We want to grow our movement and get more and more fans to campaign against their club's polluting sponsor. For that, we hire a freelance fan organiser for 30 days. Do you want to join us? Send your application to [email protected].

FIFA's partnership with Saudi Aramco goes against the values of human rights and the planet. Women in football are speaking out—it's time for FIFA to listen. Drop @aramco now. Support us and add your voice to the movement! It's important to listen to the voice of Lina Alhathloul, human rights activist from Saudi Arabia, who talks about human rights violations and sports' role in this, at the Play the Game conference 2024. Link below 👇 https://lnkd.in/dyFrcDnG #DropAramcoFIFA

📢 130 players - including our longtime star player Tessel Middag - speak out against the awful sponsor deal between FIFA and Saudi Aramco! They don't accept being used as billboards for a repressive regime and a huge polluter. 👏 We applaud these players for their moral clarity and their courage. FIFA can not ignore their call. Together, players and fans can kick big polluters out of football! https://lnkd.in/ev9bBKMv (Thanks to ActionFC for the image: https://lnkd.in/eMYK5GB3)

I support the 100 brave women footballers criticising FIFA's deal with a big oil firm that's burning the planet. Saudi aramco is mostly owned by the state of Saudi Arabia that routinely jails women for asking for equality. It is never easy for any pro sportsperson to go public on their political views, especially when speaking truth to power, so they have my admiration. FIFA are allowing a state with an awful human rights record and a company that is currently most at fault for worsening the climate crises to use football to improve their image. As a professional footballer and someone that supports gender equality, I will always oppose this. People often say "keep politics out of football". Well I say this decision by FIFA is deeply political and should be opposed with force by anyone that loves sport and the beautiful game. Otherwise it, and everyone involved it in it, is at risk of looking pretty ugly. Please show your support for this campaign by sharing 🙏 #AramNO #DropAramcoFIFA https://lnkd.in/ewVrfGkp

It is that time of the year again: nominations for the Bad Sport Awards 2024 are now open! The Badvertising campaign is back with another round of awards calling out the most egregious examples of greenwash and sportswash from across global sport. This year there are six categories this year: 🏅 The Bad Sport of the Year 2024 Award: the overall winner for the most egregious examples of greenwash and sportswash.  ⛷️ The ‘Thin Ice’ Award (in collaboration with Save Our Snow): the most self-defeating high-carbon sponsorship deal or commercial partnership in winter sports. 🏃♀️ The ‘Running on Fumes’ Award (in collaboration with The Green Runners): the most outrageous examples of sportswash or greenwashing in running, across elite running events to trail and ultramarathons.  ⚽ The ‘Own Goal’ Award (in collaboration with Fossil Free Football): the football organisation or club that makes an own goal that could make us lose the match against climate breakdown.  🚲 The ‘Taking People for a Ride’ Award: for the sport, club or organisation that through inappropriate advertising or sponsorship deals most betrays or alienates its members and supporters. 🎰 The ‘Bad Bet’ Award: this award highlights the sports organisations that have made a commercial decision that could become a thorn in the side of their sustainability initiatives. Get your nominations in here: https://lnkd.in/edcx_D8S

It was a great honour to win the Sports Category of the Trouw Sustainability Citizens Initiative of the year! This was cause for celebration up of course, but we’ll organise a much bigger party when FIFA drops its terrible sponsor deal with Saudi Aramco! (You’re all invited!) Congratulations to all other winners and especially overall winner Rechten van de Natuur ! Read our interview in Trouw here: https://lnkd.in/ebJB5gge

It was a great honour to win the Sports Category of the Trouw Sustainability Citizens Initiative of the year! This was cause for celebration up of course, but we’ll organise a much bigger party when FIFA drops its terrible sponsor deal with Saudi Aramco! (You’re all invited!) Congratulations to all other winners and especially overall winner Rechten van de Natuur ! Read our interview in Trouw here: https://lnkd.in/ebJB5gge

Quite a step to see this newspaper editorial by Trouw on polluting sponsors and the climate problem of an ever expanding calendar: “UEFA talks about a sustainable football world and has committed to UN agreements to halve CO2 emissions by 2030. What exactly a sustainable football world entails is not an easy question, but the current practice of men’s football is unsustainable in every sense of the word. Of the 108 participants in the European club tournaments, only 27 have no fossil fuel sponsors, as calculated by FFF, and under a new format, the match schedule has been expanded by no less than 177 games.” Their conclusion: time for players to strike. https://lnkd.in/e9Z5-W9F