2024-05-30

LONDON – This is a cross-border investigation by five journalists into how the world’s most popular sport is creating a huge carbon footprint and relying on the fossil fuel industry in a never-ending search for more money and more fans.

The project investigates how football clubs travel the world in pre-season to play pointless friendly matches, while players and officials rely on private jets instead of scheduled flights at the cost of the environment.

Burning Up The planet: Football’s Carbon Footprint exposes the sham of some carbon credit schemes and the promises made in the quest for a Net Zero world that will not be fulfilled.

The project also exposes how football is increasingly reliant on major fossil fuel producers for both sponsorship and to host major tournaments, which increase in their number and scope to send players and fans further afield than ever before while failing to properly acknowledge or explain the carbon footprint that these events are creating.

Illustration by Andy Brown

Team members

Steve Menary

Steve Menary is a British journalist specialised in sports.

Steve Menary

Jack Kerr

Jack Kerr (Australia) is a data and OSINT journalist.

Jack Kerr

Andy Brown

Andy Brown is a freelance UK journalist who has been covering sports for over 15 years. 

Andy Brown

Philippe Auclair

Philippe Auclair (UK) is a football writer, broadcaster and investigative journalist.

Philippe Auclair

Samindra Kunti

Samindra Kunti is a football journalist based in Belgium.

Samindra_Kunti
Supported
€23,060 allocated on 28/08/2023
ID
ENV1/2024/417

PUBLICATIONS

PRINT

  • Smoke and Mirrors: Just how carbon neutral was the supposedly green 2022 World Cup? The Blizzard, Issue Fifty Four, pp.59-66

COUNTRIES

  • The EU 
  • The UK 
  • USA 
  • Switzerland 
  • Saudi Arabia 
  • Qatar
  • Australia

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