Film: Love Football, Hate Pollution

In a new film with Badvertising, we spoke to fans about their earliest memories of the beautiful game against a backdrop of climate inaction from FIFA.

For many growing up, watching the World Cup for the first time with friends or family marks an early encounter with the emotion that surrounds the sport. A missed penalty or a last minute toe poke can bring a room to tears - of elation or sadness.

But for young fans watching football’s crowning event across the globe for the first time this year, they may notice that their favourite team aren’t just playing against their opponents - but the heat.

New analysis from climate research group World Weather Attribution has found that a quarter of the 104 matches at the expanded tournament across the United States, Mexico and Canada are likely to be played in conditions exceeding safety limits recommended by football players’ union FIFPRO, almost twice the risk seen at the 1994 World Cup in the US. This research follows hot on the heels of an open letter from health experts demanding FIFA acts responsibly by changing its heat safety policy and distancing itself from polluting sponsors.

This rapid change in weather speaks to the scale of the crisis facing the sport, one that is caused by the promotion and normalisation of high-carbon lifestyles. And at a time when the World Cup has never appeared more vulnerable in terms of player safety, FIFA will be promoting Aramco - the world’s largest fossil fuel company.

Show your support for the players and organisations speaking out against the polluting sponsors endangering sport by signing the Fossil Free Declaration as a concerned fan.