Top 20 footballers emit 500 tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2019

KOLKATA: World’s top 20 footballers alone contributed 500 tonnes of carbon dioxide to greenhouse emissions during 2019, a study conducted by FootballPredictions.NET has estimated.

“Top players are held in very high esteem by their fans and idolised for their heroics on the pitch, but their jetting around means they’re among the worst offenders when it comes to polluting the Earth and accelerating climate change,” the study mentions.

FootballPredictions.NET suggests clubs should be taking steps to reduce their use of private jets.


International status of football means the world’s best players spend a lot of their time travelling all over the globe to appear in European and international fixtures, but while they do so they continue to rack up air miles and cause further damage to the planet — often without doing enough or anything to offset it.

“Here at FootballPredictions.NET, we’ve calculated which of the world’s leading footballers are the worst offenders when it comes to carbon emissions. We’ve also spoken to leading voices on how to combat the issue of travel in football,” FootballPredictions.NET said in the study.

The emissions that come from just one plane journey can be damaging to the environment but, by doing dozens of trips during the course of one calendar year, footballers are shown to have a much greater impact on climate change by producing a carbon footprint well beyond that of the average person.

The study mentions that to date, very little has been done by leading organisations in football to combat the issue of climate change in football. Forest Green of the English Football League are leading the way, having been named as the greenest football club on the planet and achieving carbon-neutral status after working with the United Nations.

But that could be about to change, according to one expert in the field, with studies such as Eco-Friendly Footballers exposing the true damage footballers are causing to the planet.