Environmental management of sport events: a focus on European professional football

The relation between sport and sustainability is a topic that has recently raised a lot of interest among both academics and practitioners. However, in the academic literature, very few studies have investigated which solutions are implemented in football, despite its popularity, to reduce the environmental impact of its events. This study contributes to filling this gap by exploring how stadium managers tackle environmental issues for football events.

The authors have analyzed 94 sustainability reports of major sports events and conducted 6 case studies in 6 different major league stadiums around Europe in the framework of research supported by UEFA and three EU National Football Associations.

The heterogeneity of practices and goals at both the governance and operational level denote that stadium managers pursue environmental objectives mainly voluntarily and under local pressures. Efforts toward environmental improvement appear to depend on an economic and efficiency rationale, which translates into the adoption of technologies and operational practices characterized by short-term economic returns (i.e. energy and resources savings). As a result, operational practices outnumber governance-level practices.

The analysis clearly highlights that the fragmentation of operational practices derives from a lack of maturity of governance structures, especially when multiple actors have different – yet mutually influencing – responsibilities on the infrastructures or the planning and staging of football events.

Building on the notion of the holistic approach to environmental sustainability in sport management the research differentiated environmental practices according to the operational and governance dimensions. While operational practices tackle environmental aspects directly associated with football events (e.g. waste, energy consumption, water usage, etc.), governance-level practices relate to the systemic allocation of environmental roles and responsibilities within the management structure underlying football events.