How sustainable do Bundesliga clubs travel? | Sports | DW

The interior of the stadium of Bundesliga club 1. FSV Mainz 05 is illuminated by a new LED lighting system during an evening game

“We thought about traveling with a sand yacht,” was the smug reply from coach Christophe Galtier a few weeks ago. A journalist had asked why ten-time French champions Paris St. Germain had traveled by plane to the away game in Nantes. PSG star striker Kylian Mbappé, who was on the podium at the press conference, laughed at the joke but the public found it less funny.

The flight to Nantes – some 380 kilometers by road from Paris and just over two hours by express train from the French capital – and Galtier’s seemingly arrogant response is not the first time the topic of sustainable travel has been brought up in top European football into focus. In retrospect, the PSG coach regretted his flippant statement. One is aware of the responsibility for the climate, said Galtier after the Champions League game against Juventus Turin on the French channel “Canal + Foot”.

Pioneer Bundesliga?

The waves that followed his statements have long since calmed down. But the core issue remains acute: How sustainable and resource-efficient does professional football operate and travel in Europe? The Bundesliga has long been considered an international pioneer when it comes to innovation and climate protection. Solar panels on stadium roofs, LED lighting systems or self-sufficient water supply: climate-neutral stadiums are already a reality in Germany’s elite league – at least on paper. FSV Mainz 05, for example, has been calling itself “the first climate-neutral club in the Bundesliga” since 2010.

But the crowds of fans that flock to the stadiums every weekend, sometimes covering hundreds of kilometers to do so, also leave a significant ecological footprint. According to a study by the climate consulting agency “CO2OL” on behalf of Deutschlandfunk from 2020, football fans cause around 7,800 tons of CO2 emissions per match day.

Bus, train or plane?

How do the Bundesliga teams themselves deal with their trips to away games? DW asked all 18 top division clubs about it. Seven clubs did not answer, three stated that they could not comment on the subject for data protection reasons and/or kick-off times that had not yet been scheduled and the corresponding unclear travel planning.

The other eight clubs provided information. Borussia Dortmund announced that more than half of the away games this season will be traveled by bus. Schalke 04 stated that they had used the bus for three of the four away games played so far and once the plane.

Werder Bremen traveled to ten of the 17 away games by bus last season, which the club played in the 2nd Bundesliga. The team used the train twice and the plane five times. According to Werder, three of the five flights were scheduled flights.

VfL Bochum and Eintracht Frankfurt said they would fly “only in exceptional cases”. As an example, Frankfurt cites last season’s away games in Munich or Berlin, which were played a few days after Eintracht’s Europa League games. In total, the Europa League winner traveled eleven times by bus over a total distance of 2,364 kilometers in the 2021/22 Bundesliga season, three times by plane (1,461 kilometers) and three times by train (805 kilometers). The kilometer data only recorded the one-way trip, not the outward and return journey.

Train travel unsuitable due to pandemic

Mainz 05 used the team bus for eleven away games last season, and the team flew to six games. The club announced that it would only travel by plane for away games at a distance of at least 400 kilometers from the destination and, if possible, use scheduled flights. 1. FC Köln stated that they generally take the bus for trips away from home that take up to four hours.

SC Freiburg announced that they “usually” take the bus to away games in southern and southwestern Germany. Before the corona pandemic, venues in the west were generally traveled to by train and more distant venues such as Berlin or Bremen by plane. Freiburg and other clubs pointed out that train travel is currently unsuitable for traveling to away games due to the pandemic and the hygiene concepts in force in the Bundesliga.

The interior of the stadium of Bundesliga club 1. FSV Mainz 05 is illuminated by a new LED lighting system during an evening game

LED lighting in the Mainz stadium: the club claims to have been the first climate-neutral Bundesliga club since 2010

At least seven times more emissions

Traffic researcher Giulio Mattioli from the Technical University of Dortmund sees a general problem worldwide in the fact that flying is perceived as a requirement, especially in privileged circles such as professional football. “My impression is that air travel has become standard in the lives of professional footballers,” Mattioli told DW. “Perhaps that’s the most dangerous aspect: people in certain positions take it for granted – and that creates this habituation effect.”

According to calculations by Mattiolis and his colleagues, PSG’s much-discussed 42-minute flight from Paris to Nantes on September 3 generated at least seven times more emissions than a bus trip would have done.

Mattioli also sees politics as having a responsibility to reduce air traffic. “More could be done by regulating domestic and private flights, and a moratorium on airport expansion would also be good,” said the scientist. “If you limit the supply, the demanders have to find a way to adapt.” That would then also apply to professional football.

Adapted from the English by David Vorholt.


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