Europe’s national football teams competing in the upcoming UEFA Euro 2024 tournament in Germany could slash their travel emissions by as much as 60 per cent if they avoided flying, fresh analysis released today has claimed.
Euro 2024, which kicks off on 14 June and runs for a month until 14 July, will see 24 national teams take part in a total of 51 matches at venues across Germany. But while efforts have been made to curb transport emissions among fans going to see the games, research carried out by green transport campaign Travel Smart in collaboration with the NGO Transport & Environment argues national teams themselves have yet to take requisite action to cut the CO2 impact of their travel.
The research notes that UEFA has been incentivising football supporters and teams to travel in and within Germany by rail by clustering group stage matches in a bid to reduce the amount of travel required between events. It follows criticism of Europe’s football governing body three years ago for hosting the previous Euro 2020 tournament – which was delayed by a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic – in multiple different countries across the continent, thereby increasing travel distances and associated emissions for fans and teams alike.
The German national rail company Deutsche Bahn is also recognised in the report for incentivising greener travel options by offering discounted, round-trip national train tickets and subsidised InterRail passes for match ticket holders coming from outside Germany.
“UEFA and the hosts Germany have put a lot of effort into cutting transport emissions around the tournament, making it the greenest championships ever – this shows what can be done,” said Erin Vera, campaign manager at Travel Smart, who contrasted these efforts with those of national football teams across Europe.
“Disappointingly the national teams are so far failing to lead by example. If teams chose to avoid taking the plane for journeys that could reasonably be taken by train or coach, they can drastically slash their emissions”.
As a result of the actions of UEFA and Deutsche Bahn to curb transport emissions for fans at Euro 2024, the report said “it has never been easier to travel to a major sporting event by train”, but it also pointed out that most national teams themselves have not yet “clearly committed” to reducing their transport emissions.
Last month T&E along with climate groups across Europe had called on national football teams to commit to travelling more sustainably by avoiding flying where possible. On average, all national teams can reduce their emissions by 95 per cent for the group stage by shifting from air to rail or road, it said.
But so far, Germany and neighbouring Switzerland are the only national teams taking part in the tournament which have pledged to not fly during the event. The report estimates that in not taking domestic flights to matches at Euro 2024, the German football team will cut its transport emissions by as much as 98 per cent.
Over the month-long competition, the analysis estimates that footballers travelling by plane will produce seven to nine times more CO2 through their transport emissions alone than what the average person typically emits over a whole month.
Elsewhere, the report also warns that the continued expansion of football competitions across Europe and beyond risks further increasing transport emissions in future. Indeed, the upcoming 2024-25 football season is set to see the biggest expansion in the number of football games to date across Europe, when the continent’s premier tournament – the Champions League – expands from 125 matches per year to 189 which the report said would result in “significantly more flying”.
“Football is the most popular sport in the world, so teams and players have the opportunity to lead by example, choosing to travel with more sustainable modes of transport like rail instead of by plane,” the report states. “This, together with the momentum created by the agreement signed by UEFA and the German rail company DB to promote the train, creates the perfect window of opportunity.
It added: “National football teams and its players should seize the opportunity of the Euro 2024 to champion sustainable mobility choices and reduce their travel emissions. The efforts made by UEFA and some of the teams to reduce the footprint of this Euro 2024 should not be an exception. This year’s sustainability plan should be the first of many to come.”
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