PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
A huge volume of waste is generated during football matches, a problem that becomes particularly acute at the biggest matches and international tournaments (UEFA Champions League, EURO 2016, World Cup etc.), which attract thousands and thousands of people. In addition to waste, several other environmental issues are raised by football matches, such as energy and water consumption, as well as mobility. The average European football match generates 0.8 kg of waste per spectator, which corresponds to 4.2 tonnes of waste per match. When all matches organised by European national football associations are taken into account, the overall waste generation is an estimated 750 000 tonnes per year. So far, a few national football associations or football clubs have a proper environmental strategy.
OBJECTIVES
LIFE TACKLE aimed to show a red card to poor environmental management governance by national football associations (NFA) and both organisational and operational level. It will also raise fans' environmental awareness in order to reduce the environmental impact of football matches. This would involve preparing guidelines for three national football associations Italy, Romania and Sweden, so that they are informed about relevant environmental legislation and trained to implement and share best practice. The project aimed to develop and implement communication campaigns to increase awareness on environmental issues among football clubs, football fan clubs, supporters, stadium and sport facilities staff, also by deploying the influence of clubs and famous football players. It would work with UEFA to establish a replicability management board and build ties with the organisers of UEFA EURO 2020, so as to share results during that tournament, by involving another four national football associations. In addition to social media, the project would use advanced communication techniques such as display panels in stadiums, messages on tickets and vox pop fan videos at matches to disseminate its environmental management and waste prevention message to football supporters.
LIFE TACKLE aimed to be in line with the goals set by the Waste Framework Directive and the Circular Economy Package.
RESULTS
The LIFE TACKLE project team raised awareness of the environmental impact of football matches, helped update UEFA's sustainability strategy, established a replicability management board, and involved football associations in a series of pilot actions. With these goals in mind, the project team successfully engaged the most relevant stakeholders in the football sector, namely: (i) Stadiums (and related Football Clubs); (ii) National Football Associations (NAFs); and (iii) Football supporters.
Engagement involved a comprehensive set of awareness-raising and dissemination actions. These included banners in stadiums, informative videos with famous footballers, scientific articles, and radio interviews.
The project team provided training on environmental aspects, and organised events. In particular, almost 1 million euros were directly and indirectly invested by the NFAs involved in the project, around 100 hours of training on environmental topics were carried out targeting NFAs employees, and some 40 hours of training was organised for employees of stadium service providers. More generally, the information campaign is estimated to have reached more than 825 000 people.
Although this is a LIFE Governance project, it also delivered some direct environmental benefits thanks to pilot actions implemented in the participating stadiums. These were made possible through the substitution of stadium seats made from virgin plastics with seats made using 40% recycled plastics; the introduction of reusable drinks cups; the promotion of food donation and recycling facilities; and the installation of a two-bin system for separate waste collection. The project’s LCA for all these measures demonstrated that they: (i) reduced the amount of waste production by 255 tons, (ii) reduced greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 203 tons CO2 eq., and (iii) reduced water consumption by 17 115.5 m3.
Prospects for the continuation of the actions are good, through the support of the Replicability Management Board. In addition to the commitment of the involved stadiums to continue implementing the measures tested, the project team has been able to involve several other stadiums and Football Associations in after-LIFE. As a result, the benefits achieved at the end of the project are expected to be multiplied after 5 years, reducing waste production by around 700 tons and GHG emissions by around 550 tons CO2 eq.
UEFA has directly promoted the project's best practices (articulated in the Guidelines for the environmental management of football events) among National Football Associations. This is expected to facilitate a change in behaviour towards environmental sustainability in the whole EU football sector in the long term. In addition, fruitful meetings in Brussels with key EU policymakers were organised, so the project is also likely to contribute to the update of the EU Work Plan for Sport.
Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report and After-LIFE Communication Plan (see "Read more" section).
