| Summary: | Shifting the all-English final from Istanbul would reduce carbon emissions but there is still a lack of long-term thinking from Uefa when it comes to doing the right thing It was bad enough in 2019 when tens of thousands of football supporters from the United Kingdom traipsed across Europe to watch two English clubs, Tottenham and Liverpool, play the Champions League final at Atlético Madrid’s stadium in Spain. More easily, cheaply and comfortably they could have hopped on a train or coach, or driven to meet each other halfway in Birmingham. Now, not only are we still in the middle of a pandemic, with Turkey, where this season’s Champions League final between Manchester City and Chelsea was initially scheduled to take place on 29 May, registering an average of 29,000 new coronavirus cases per day, but since 2019 there has been a rising tide of awareness about the climate emergency and the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions. The governing body is infamous for not reading the room on issues ranging from racism to corruption, and has the fossil fuel company Gazprom as a long-standing major sponsor. But this time it failed to read the stadium. Flying to Istanbul under current restrictions was always going to be a joyless, isolated, experience and, most importantly, risk the spread of infection. Four thousand fans flying each from Manchester and London on half-full planes would have put about 6,400 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere (assuming everyone flew economy, and not including players, staff, media and entourage). That’s the equivalent of burning the gasoline from 84 tanker trucks. Sport knows all about the importance of marginal gains in athletic performance, but decisions like this make it look, in climate terms, like it’s still stuck on the sofa, drinking, smoking and downing doughnuts. “Once again Uefa misses an open goal,” said Prof Peter Newell of Sussex University, author of a recent groundbreaking report on sustainable... |