World Cup Across Three Continents Raises Climate Issues

Concern has been raised over the environmental cost of the 2030 FIFA World Cup, which would bring dozens of football teams and throngs of fans to three continents for matches.

Wednesday will see the announcement of the 2030 and 2034 World Cups, which are expected to result in a significant geographic expansion and the release of greenhouse gases that will warm the world.

Saudi Arabia is the only contender for the 2034 tournament; however, Morocco, Spain, and Portugal have united to bid for the 2030 competition, while Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay will each host a match.

FIFA has a “moral responsibility” to incorporate climate concerns into its tournament plans, according to Guillaume Gouze of the University of Limoges’ Centre of Sports Law and Economics.

Instead, he said, it had proposed World Cups that are an “ecological aberration”.

Crazy Idea’

Benja Faecks of the NGO Carbon Market Watch, which evaluates climate promises of major events, told AFP that in general attempts at greenwashing in sport — or “sportswashing” — are harder than they used to be, with academics and campaigners holding organisations to account.

But she said that the 2030 tournament was “an unfortunate geographic choice”.

When an event is spread over sites thousands of kilometres apart, teams and potentially hundreds of thousands of their loyal fans have to travel by plane.

The tournament, which originated in Montevideo, will celebrate its 100th anniversary with three matches in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay.

According to David Gogishvili, a researcher at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, FIFA is eager to promote football accessibility worldwide.

However, he continued, “considering the impact this decision will have on the planet, it is a crazy idea.”

With 48 teams competing in the 2026 edition, which will be held in Mexico, the United States, and Canada, FIFA has already increased the number of teams participating in the game from 32 in 2022.

According to Aurelien Francois, a sports management professor at the University of Rouen in France, this “is almost worse than the Cup on three continents.”

Among other things, more teams mean more waste, more capacity required in the hotel and catering industries, and more fans wishing to visit the sites.

According to FIFA, “the tournament will be played in a footprint of neighboring countries in close geographic proximity and with extensive and well developed transport links and infrastructure,” with the exception of the games in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay.

In a contentious agreement that expires in 2027, the oil and gas tycoon Saudi Aramco also became a key sponsor early this year.

In October, an open letter from more than a hundred female professional footballers across 24 countries called for the deal to be cancelled on the grounds of human rights and environmental concerns, saying: “FIFA might as well pour oil on the pitch and set it alight”.

Fan Zones 

Just shrinking the geographic footprint is not enough, researchers said.

While the 2022 World Cup was held in a “compact” site in Qatar, it was necessary to build new air-conditioned stadiums that were rarely reused.

A provision by the International Olympic Committee that prohibits giving the World Cup to a place where everything has not yet been constructed is one possible improvement, Gogishvili noted.

Reserving a sizable percentage of stadium tickets for supporters coming from nearby cities and promoting train travel are two further ways to cut down on air travel.

Like other experts AFP spoke with, Gouze is in favor of expanding fan zones in soccer-loving cities so that people may enjoy “a collective experience” that replicates the stadium atmosphere in front of a large screen.

However, FIFA would have to acknowledge the effect on the World Cup’s financial success.

According to Ronan Evain of Hamburg-based Football Supporters Europe, an increasing proportion of soccer fans are more ecologically conscious than they were just a few years ago since they are a reflection of the general community.

Citing the 2002 Cup, which was co-hosted by South Korea and Japan, he stated that while co-hosting is not inherently problematic, fans have “too many questions” about the 2030 competition.

These include the financial and environmental expenses for supporters who are attempting to follow their teams around the world.

According to Antoine Miche, director of Football Ecologie France, ardent supporters, however, will not be deterred by the lengthy travel.

He went on to say that “passion can lead you to do things that don’t make sense.”

AFP