Eco-Friendly Football at Amazing UEFA Euro 2024

Eco-friendly football will be the trademark of the upcoming UEFA Euro, which will be held in Germany next summer for the first time since the unification of this country. Germany is probably the most developed country in Europe, which takes a lot of care in maintaining the human environment, so this great European competition will be held in that spirit. The organizers plan for this to be the most sustainable championship in history and for all participants, national teams, and fans to take care of their environment.

We already wrote in one of the articles that the UEFA leaders recommended that teams and fans use another means of transport instead of an airplane that emits harmful gases into the environment, so this is another thing that indicates that we will watch the Euros in Germany in a great, but at the same time eco-friendly way. – friendly football.

Eco-friendly football: New Sustainability Standards

As already mentioned, UEFA and Germany plan to set new standards when it comes to eco-friendly football. Until a few decades ago, environmental issues were on the back burner, and people from other walks of life did not deal with them, let alone those who play football. We are witnessing that our planet is becoming more and more polluted and that people are taking less and less care of the environment, so we can safely say that the clock is ticking five minutes to 12 when it comes to saving our environment.

Therefore, the decision to pay so much attention to ecology at the upcoming Euro and to make this championship one of the most sustainable ever when it comes to this competition is not at all surprising. We will often hear that football is the image of a society, and if people from football contribute to the preservation of our planet, then the promotion of eco-friendly football could contribute to all of us taking care of the space we live in every day.

“EURO 2024 will set a new standard for major sporting events – cooperative, holistic, sustainable before during, and after the event,” said Nancy Faeser, German Federal Minister of the Interior and Community.

Michele Uva, UEFA’s Director of Social and Environmental Sustainability, said: “We’re working daily together on this. EURO 2024 is a big opportunity for us to show how sustainability can be a driving force for the event’s success. The legacy is not only for Germany, but all of European football and other sports if we can inspire them.”

Most sustainable UEFA Euro ever?

German officials, together with people from UEFA, will do their best to organize the most sustainable championship ever, and Germany definitely meets the requirements for such a thing. It is almost certain that most European countries, not to mention other regions of the world, would not be able to do what Germany will try to do next summer.

Thomas Fischer, head of the Environmental Services Division of Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), praised the intent behind the brochure: “I believe that we have extremely good conditions here in the football country of Germany to hold the most sustainable European Championships of all time.”

What will the Germans do so that we can watch eco-friendly football in their country? That sustainability will be genetic in this tournament is indicated by the fact that the schedule of matches will encourage eco-friendly football. The teams will be distributed by region, which will contribute to short travel distances during the group stage. That is why the organizers advocate that EURO participants use public transport, trains, and not airplanes as a means of transport.

“The match schedules are already set, and we have tried to make them sustainable,” said Martin Kallen, CEO of UEFA Events SA. Each team will play twice within one cluster, which means that neither the players nor the fans will be burdened with travel because they will play and follow two matches in the same area.

The fans will certainly not object to traveling by train or bus, because going to the game is a real adventure for them, whichever means of transport they travel with, and what will happen to the national teams remains to be seen next summer. Fans will have the opportunity to enjoy benefits as they will be able to use public transport for free for 36 hours and the price of train tickets will be reduced. On this occasion, the organizers want to reduce the emission of harmful gases in the atmosphere. Electric scooters and bicycles will also be available to them.

All stadiums will be supplied with 100 percent renewable energy, and it is clear that these are modern stadiums that can fulfill plans related to eco-friendly football, and most of those stadiums have already hosted a major competition, the World Cup in 2006, although at that time it was not much attention was paid to eco-friendly football, and the possibilities for the realization of that plan were not great due to certain difficulties, primarily in terms of transport.

It is also planned for fans to take into account the amount of garbage they will leave behind, so reusable containers will be installed. The restaurants will offer sustainable food. During the championship, liters and liters of beer will be drunk, and the plan is to use reusable glasses and, despite the high temperatures, to use water sparingly.