Description
The UN’s Sports for Climate Action Framework calls on the global sports sector to take leadership on emissions reductions and help create ‘solidarity among global citizens for climate action’ (UNFCC 2018). Football[1], as a dominant global sport, is slowly engaging. At the UK national level, the men’s English Premier League (EPL) has created an Environmental Sustainability Commitment that ‘introduces a minimum standard of action on environmental issues across the clubs and Leagues’ (EPL 2024); demonstrating organisational recognition of football’s carbon responsibility (Mabon 2023). Yet, the majority of football’s climate actions are focused upon club activities rather than fan involvement, despite the UN’s Sports for Climate Action foregrounding citizen’s role in climate action, and football’s opportunity to collectively engage fans at an everyday level for inclusive climate action (EFDN, 2023). From an academic perspective, very little research explores football’s capacity for climate communication and action (Baldwin 2010, Amann and Doidge 2023), despite growing recognition of the role football could play in enabling large scale public engagement with climate change.Addressing this research deficit, this paper critically examines the climate communication practices of men’s English Premier League (EPL) football clubs. It asks; How do men’s EPL football clubs discursively communicate climate change and sustainability, what actions are promoted, and how are fans positioned? How are football clubs’ identities and values drawn upon in their climate communication? To what extent and how is climate change presented as a climate justice issue through football? Central, is an exploration of the tensions between the increasing commodification of football as global business and branded cultural form (Evans and Norcliffe 2016); the role of fans in creating football cultures around values of identity, community and belonging; and how these relations might play out in the formation and expression of sustainability and climate change actions. Given the pressing need for climate communication to address climate justice (Fine and Love-Nichols 2021), and the unique potential that football can play in ‘promoting sustainable practices that value justice, integrity, inclusion and education’ (EDFN 2023, 5), this paper also explores how and to what extent climate justice is figured in club communication on climate change and sustainability. It begins by situating the analysis within literatures on sustainability and the sports sector; football’s existing engagement with climate change; and climate communication and climate justice.
Using critical discourse analysis, the paper examines public communication on climate and sustainability from 8 men’s EPL football clubs - Aston Villa FC, Crystal Palace FC, Brighton and Hove Albion FC, Everton FC, Liverpool FC, Manchester City FC, Tottenham Hotspur FC and Wolverhampton Wanderers FC - exploring website, social media and corporate reports. Sport Positive has identified these clubs as having a specific ‘brand identity for their environmental efforts’, including a presence on the club website (Sport Positive 2024, 6). As such, they represent clubs with more visible commitment to climate action and provide an important first step in exploring preliminary discourses on climate change in the context of football.
(Preliminary) Results -Football clubs favour the word sustainability or environmental sustainability over climate change, more consistent with corporate discourses of sustainability. With very few references to economic sustainability however, sustainability is primarily focused upon environment, or ‘the planet’. Club colours and identities are used by all clubs in their visual and linguistic sustainability branding - ‘My Albion, My Planet’, or ‘Claret, Blue and Green’ - integrating club and fans. Whilst social aspects of sustainability - like community and culture - are referenced in some club communication (particularly Liverpool FC and Brighton and Hove Albion FC), often in relation to the community work that clubs do through their charitable Foundations, both the discursive and practical linking of social injustices and environmental sustainability is not made. Whilst some clubs articulate aspirations to promote environmental awareness, most climate actions identified are based upon stadium management (water, lighting etc), kits and food choices. This is further reinforced by a relative lack of fan incorporation in relation to their perspectives or decision-making.
As a global popular cultural form linked to people’s everyday lives and emotions, football could play a significant role in advocating for climate action in ways that both communicate and contribute to climate justice. This paper finds that men’s EPL football clubs are beginning to engage with climate through cultural references to football identity and community, yet fall short of foregrounding climate justice, despite being uniquely placed to do so through their Foundations and relationship to fans. However, there is strong capacity for fans and a justice element, to be included in club climate communication and action, and for communication scholars to support this work. This paper represents a start.
[1] Football also refers to soccer.
| Period | 25 Jun 2025 |
|---|---|
| Event title | International Conference on Communication and Environment (COCE) 2025: Environment and Communication: Shifting Perspectives, Creativity and Conviviality from the Edge |
| Event type | Conference |
| Conference number | 18 |
| Location | Hobart, AustraliaShow on map |