Football cannot turn its head, environmental sustainability is a priority

There is no doubt that awareness and calls to action on environmental sustainability are increasing throughout civil society. Football cannot, indeed it must not turn away because it is an integral part of society, therefore it is called to contribute to the solution, but within it there are still too many who short-sightedly do not think so. I think one of the most important managerial skills is the ability to anticipate and, translating the concept, football must not simply intercept and follow the trends of sustainability and civil society, it must anticipate and originate them.

We have the unique ability to reach, inspire, activate your community, the largest in the world. Environmental sustainability, which is transversely linked to the other three pillars, namely sports, social and financial ones, has become a priority.

UEFA has developed a long-term sustainability strategy oriented towards 2030, aware of the fact that it is a necessary path and a long-term investment. It is therefore a journey that presents important challenges along the way. To overcome them, the football ecosystem must first of all develop a strategic path and contextually recognize the urgency of acting and collaborating around a common agenda to change the functional aspects of sustainability internally, without pretending to solve the problems that civil society has and often transmits it to football, which undergoes them too passively.

Even if football cannot take on all the problems of the planet by itself, environmental responsibility is certainly one of the areas in which the most loved sport in the world can help change some of our ways of living. The main task falls to the international institutions, the governments that legislate and that must launch and implement collective actions to protect the entire population and the health conditions of the globe.

Football, however, must know how to support principles, standards and practices of sustainability in all areas in which it operates, from the complex life cycle of events, for example aiming at the new frontier of the circular economy, to daily activities, up to infrastructures in which it acts by taking into account all the technologies aimed at reducing emissions and saving energy. The path traced by UEFA, which European federations, leagues and clubs are and will have to transpose increasingly obligatory, shows how sustainability requires the right balance between socially responsible and environmentally friendly actions and practices to preserve the long-term sustainability of football .

Football can and must have its impact on civil society. It must be able to invest together with all stakeholders based on common beliefs and trust, using its voice to raise public awareness of the issues related to the sustainability parameters on which it will have an impact. It is evident in us the belief that sustainability can underpin the success of European football and vice versa. The time has come to act together.

(*The author is Director of Social & Environmental Sustainability of UEFA)