Green Football Weekend returns and takes place across the weekend of February 2-5; the world's largest climate-football campaign mobilises fans, clubs, leagues and partners to take action on climate; the campaign will focus on the power of veg to help protect our world
Saturday 3 February 2024 07:50, UK
Sky Sports is once again backing Green Football Weekend as the world's largest climate-football campaign returns for a second year.
Across the weekend of February 2-5, clubs will take centre stage as part of Green Football Weekend, taking part in greener games to showcase their sustainability work, engaging fans in the issue and announcing new, more ambitious commitments.
The world's largest climate-football campaign mobilises fans, clubs, leagues and partners to take action on climate.
The campaign will focus on the power of veg to help protect our world; encouraging fans to try cooking a veggie meal and working with clubs and caterers to put on delicious veggie and plant-based food for matchday fans.
The future of football is at risk due to the effects of climate change, with 150,000 games already cancelled per year due to pitch flooding. By 2050, a quarter of UK football grounds will be flooded, with one in four teams expecting partial or total stadium flooding each year.
Sarah Jacobs, Green Football Weekend director, said: "Green Football Weekend is fan action at its most powerful, and brings clubs together to take increasingly ambitious action on climate.
"Football has incredible power to inspire change and improve lives, and that's what this campaign is all about."
Sky Sports is once again backing Green Football Weekend and will use its platform to support the campaign through editorial features and creative coverage.
Sky Sports is involved in Green Football Weekend to raise awareness of climate change, and show the small ways football fans, and everyone, can make changes to their lifestyles which can add up to make a big difference.
This is part of Sky Sports and Sky Zero's ongoing commitment to help fans look after the sports they love and make sure there is always a place to play.
Gary Hughes, Director of Football at Sky Sports, said: "It's a privilege to once again be involved in Green Football Weekend and use the game we all love to help protect our planet.
"At Sky Sports, we're committed to helping fans look after the sports they love and make sure there is always a place to play. Throughout the weekend, there will be a host of content geared towards inspiring change and showcasing the ways fans can make small changes to their lifestyle in order to tackle climate change."
Forest Green Rovers chairman Dale Vince on why he is supporting Green Football Weekend:
When I first got involved with Forest Green Rovers it was about to run out of money. I saw what it meant to the local community and so I stepped in to make it financially sustainable, because I didn't want to see it fold.
I had to make a lot of changes, to align the club with my environmental principles and in that I saw the opportunity to do something much bigger. It was a chance to talk to an entirely new audience about the environment. This would most definitely not be preaching to the choir - and that added to the appeal.
Now Forest Green Rovers is known as the greenest football club in the world. We've shown there's another way to do football, but the aim isn't to be the exception. Every football club should be a green football club.
That's what Green Football Weekend is all about and that's why I'm backing it. Green Football Weekend is a campaign that unleashes the power of football to tackle climate change, bringing together clubs, fans and communities to have fun and take action on climate.
It's simple - Football is a big cultural force. It's the biggest sport in the world reaching billions of passionate fans. And football fans take notice of what their clubs and stars do. If we can harness some of that passion and point it towards the environment, we can create change on the scale needed - from the grass roots if you like. I've seen it work at FGR where our fans have embraced the green agenda of the club. Football fans can easily make changes that reduce their own impact, and football is a great way to communicate with them and show them how.
We have woven sustainability into the DNA of FGR and we created a new kind of football club - one where the environment and football have equal importance - and a new kind of football fan as a consequence.
Last year Green Football Weekend reached over 30 million fans and in February 2024 we're going even bigger, with more than 80 clubs across the top leagues getting involved. It's driven by an amazing set of partners including Sky Sports, TNT Sports and the Football Supporters Association, and is backed by the FA, EFL and WSL.
It's happening from the 2nd to the 5th of February and the focus is food. Because what we eat matters. It matters for our health and for the health of the planet. It's one of the biggest and easiest ways for fans and clubs to make a difference, but there are also loads of benefits to eating less meat and more veg, from preventing injuries to improving recovery times. And it tastes great too - just ask our fans at FGR where food sales are something like 10 times higher than before we went plant based.
We've certainly been on a journey with food at FGR. We've been fully vegan since 2014 but we didn't do it overnight. It was a gradual process and we took our fans with us. It's one many areas where they've embraced another way of doing things.
Now it's probably what we're known for most and it's been fun. It was at Wembley at the full-time whistle when we were promoted to the football league, that BBC commentator Bob Hunt minted his legendary quote live on air when he exclaimed, 'Swindon, Cheltenham, Bristol Rovers, let me tell you this, next season you'll be eating hummus because Forest Green Rovers are in the Football League.'
That was fun and felt like a big win, given the scepticism and ridicule at the outset. But the bigger wins on this front have been when visiting fans like our food so much they ask their own clubs to change the menu. The proof of the pudding if you like.
I know it can feel a bit challenging to some people, to contemplate plant based food, I've seen it - I like to point out that chips are vegan, it surprises a surprising amount of people. Plant based food is quite normal.
But while clubs and their fans can make a huge difference, we can't leave it to them alone. We need the government to do their bit too. That's why we're is calling for the new independent football regulator to be responsible for environmental sustainability as well as financial sustainability. Both of these issues are vital to football and we can't properly have one without the other.
Along with the whole of the Green Britain Group, I'm backing Green Football Weekend.
So, come February 2nd, when you join me on the terraces, think about what you're eating and how you can do your bit for the planet. And if all else fails, just get some chips.
