Global Fútbol

One of the most important issues affecting the world today is climate change, and the football industry is no exception. In fact, the popularity that the beautiful game has around the planet means that the stakeholders in this sport, whether players, clubs or competitions, have a responsibility to educate and to raise awareness of the latest sustainability challenges and solutions. 

This is something LALIGA is very aware of and this was one of the main topics during the latest LALIGA EXTRA TIME webinar, which was titled 'Environmental Sustainability in Football'. It featured the thoughts of David Baixauli, Sustainability Director at LALIGA, of David Espinar, Advisor and Presidential Director at Real Valladolid, and of Gerald van den Belt, Director at Dutch club SC Cambuur.

LALIGA’s sustainability plan and using the power of football to educate

David Baixauli explained to the webinar’s audience what LALIGA has achieved over the past few years through the competition’s strategic environmental plan. One pillar of this plan has been for the competition and its clubs to become more sustainable, and this has been achieved thanks to a focus on areas such as energy efficiency, waste and water management, and mobility plans.

Yet, LALIGA’s role is about much more than ensuring the competition and the clubs reduce their impact on the environment. As Baixauli explained, the football industry’s footprint in this sense isn’t particularly large. However, football can use its immense popularity to contribute to the fight against climate change in a unique way.

In the words of Baixauli: “Based on the information and data we have been analysing from the 42 clubs during the five years that we’ve been implementing this strategy, I’ve reached the conclusion that, in terms of environmental impact, the world of football, especially professional football, is not a sector that has an abusive environmental impact. However, we are very clear that it is a sector that, given the great platform it has and given how popular it is in society, has a huge responsibility to communicate. We must reduce, we must educate, we must promote and we must communicate.”

He continued: “We advise clubs that they identify awareness-raising mechanisms which support environmental causes in their own communities.”

The Sustainability Director also outlined how LALIGA has supported the clubs in this process of raising awareness, and of implementing improvements in their own environments. Since the 2018/19 season, there has been a gradual rollout of tools and guides and these have helped the clubs greatly.

On this, he added: “LALIGA decided to create a culturalisation plan, which has been staggered year by year, providing the clubs with a mechanism that can help them to develop the environmental sustainability plans that each one of them must undertake.”

Real Valladolid’s three pillars of sustainability: Action, raising awareness and reporting

David Espinar, Advisor and Presidential Director at Real Valladolid, also participated in the webinar and was able to offer the view of one of the LALIGA clubs. He explained that Real Valladolid follow the plan laid out by LALIGA, as they try to reduce where possible and educate where possible. Reporting is another important part of the plan at the Estadio José Zorrilla, with the publication of an annual sustainability report.

The audience heard from Espinar that Real Valladolid have three pillars of sustainability: action, raising awareness and reporting. Breaking the action side down further, some examples include the incorporation of zero-emission cars, the use of renewable energy or train travel rather than coach travel.

As for raising awareness, one key initiative is that the club has a programme through which they visit local schools, with first-team footballers attending these sessions, to help raise awareness among the next generation. Real Valladolid also educate the youngsters in their academy on the importance of looking after the planet. Espinar explained: “The coaches play an important role in explaining to the young players why we don’t use plastic bottles anymore and why we provide a small reusable bottle to each young player.”

Espinar also stated during the webinar that the move towards more sustainable practices can actually be a positive for the fans, and that it’s important to communicate this well. Sharing some examples of the benefits the club’s new policies have brought to supporters, he said: “We have encouraged cycling to the stadium by installing a bicycle parking area almost 10 metres from the gates. Furthermore, we reached an agreement with the Valladolid City Council to increase the frequency of access by city buses and another with the Provincial Council so that people from the towns surrounding Valladolid don’t need to come to the stadium by car, as they can use buses that only run to the stadium on matchdays.”

SC Cambuur want to teach fans to do the small things

Throughout the LALIGA Extra Time webinars, guests from across Europe have been invited to share their experiences too and the audience was able to learn about practices in the Netherlands during this talk. The webinar was hosted by Arno Hermans, of Sports Vitality Hub, while Gerald van den Belt, Director at Dutch club SC Cambuur, was one of the speakers.

Van den Belt  shared insights regarding the new environmentally friendly stadium that SC Cambuur are building and he too spoke about education. Discussing the innovations at the new stadium and how he hopes supporters will take lessons home with them, Van den Belt said: “Every two weeks, 15,000 fans come to the stadium and, when we show them what we are doing for sustainability, for the environment, we hope it will be a good example for them. It’s things like when we show them that you can use shower water to flush the toilet. We have to make them aware of all the things they can do. It’s just small things. If everybody does the small things, it will help a lot.”