How FIFA Uses the World Cup as a Platform for Corporate Greenwash

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FIFA has been accused of double standards after it joined a UN Climate Change initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions during this yearโ€™s football World Cup while continuing to receive lucrative sponsorship deals from bigย polluters.

Footballโ€™s global governing body is the first international sports organisation to have signed up to the UN Climate Changeโ€™s (UNFCCCโ€™s) Climate Neutral Now scheme and pledged to measure, reduce and offset ticket-holdersโ€™ emissions travelling to the event inย Russia.

As part of the scheme, FIFA has committed to strive to become emission-neutral by 2050 – in line with the expectations of the Paris Agreement. But the UN offsetting mechanism has long been seen as controversial and it has previously been accused of being โ€œfundamentallyย flawedโ€.

But despite FIFAโ€™s green pledges, the association has signed sponsorship deals for the World Cup with leading natural gas and Russian state-owned company Gazprom, the first company to pump oil from the Arctic shelf and that is planning a controversial gas pipeline acrossย Europe.

Airline and motoring giants including Qatar Airways, Hyundai and Kia Motors are among the main sponsors of theย event.

โ€˜Greenwash of highestย levelโ€™

In FIFAโ€™s own words, World Cup sponsorship โ€œrepresents one of the most effective global marketing platforms, offering sponsors unrivalled opportunities to connect with consumersโ€ through one of the biggest and most watched sporting events in theย world.

Environmental activists welcomed FIFAโ€™s efforts to reduce emissions but pointed to the โ€œcontradictionโ€ between its voluntary pledge on the one hand and the football association receiving millions in sponsorship deals from carbon intensive companies with theย other.

Nicolรฒ Wojewoda, Europe team leader at the climate campaign group 350.org, told DeSmog UK: โ€œFIFA is such a powerful brand and institution: this is the highest level ofย greenwash.โ€

The ties between the football and the oil and gas industry run deep in the history of the association and the sponsorships at this yearโ€™s World Cup are a reflection of this long runningย relationship.

Jesse Bragg, spokesman for NGO Corporate Accountability, pointed to the hypocrisy of FIFAโ€™s collaboration with the UN Climateย Change.

โ€œYou cannot encourage climate action while taking money from industries driving the crisis. It’s akin to making commitments to public health while taking money from Big Tobacco โ€” it just doesn’t pass the smell test,โ€ heย said.

Fossil fuel companies like Gazprom have been accused of using sport and art sponsorship as ย platforms to boost their images as โ€œculture playersโ€ while wielding soft power and taking advantage of lobbying opportunities.

Gazprom has a long history of sponsoring football competitions and teams, which it describes as โ€œsocial projectsโ€.

The Russian gas company is the official partner of FIFA, the UEFA Champions League and a host of clubs including German Schalke 04, Serbian Crvena Zvezda and the Russian Zenit FC. Between 2012 and 2016, Gazprom also had a sponsorship deal with Chelsea FC, which is owned by Russian oligarch Romanย Abramovich.

Gazprom has proudly promoted its sponsorship of football and created a separate website and Facebook page about its connections with the sport where it tells fans about the โ€œvirtues of naturalย gasโ€.

Gazprom sponsoring the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Image Credit: IQRemix/Wikimedia Commons/CC BYSAย 2.0

Wojewoda, of 350.org said: โ€œThis shows that gas companies are starting to feel like they have to justify their actions and are buying social licences because of the emerging realities that gas are as much of a danger for climate change than other fossilย fuels.โ€

He accused fossil fuel companies like Gazprom of causing โ€œunprecedented harm to peopleโ€™s lives and livelihood through extractive activities and theirย emissionsโ€.

โ€œThey get people to think that they continue their extractive activities because they are doing other good things such as sponsoring the football World Cup. But the reality is that they are responsible for the main climate catastrophe that we are heading into,โ€ heย said.

Pointing to scientific research that showed the impact of climate change on sports, he added: โ€œThe World Cup brings people together while these companies are tearing the world apart. Itโ€™s such a shame.โ€ย ย 

Wojewoda called on FIFA to โ€œbreak its tiesโ€ with fossil fuel companies and follow the example of other global institutions which have divested their money from oil andย gas.

He urged football fans to put pressure on their clubs to move away from financial sponsors involved in polluting activities. โ€œIf fans start to speak up for the sport that they love, that is how itโ€™s going to change,โ€ heย said.

Around the world, some fans are already speaking truth to power to theirย clubs.

Last year, Coritiba football fans in Brazil opened a banner during a Brazilian championship game demanding the club divest from fossilย fuels.

In the UK, fans have also previously shown their ability to petition their clubs over ownership and managerial issues. Could climate change be the nextย step?

In the past, owners have also aimed to make their clubs moreย eco-friendly.

In 2012, Forest Green Rovers, a small football club near Bristol was bought by Ecotricity owner Dale Vince with the aim of making it the worldโ€™s first zero carbon club.

Earlier this year, it won a sustainability in sport award for its environmental initiatives including launching a fully vegan menu, installing solar panels, creating an organic pitch and using solar powered robotย lawnmower.

Football marketing fossilย fuels

FIFA sponsorship offers companies different degrees of visibility andย exposure.

The top package is reserved for partners, which include Gazprom, Qatar Airways, Hyundai and Kia Motors, Coca-Cola, Chinese conglomerate the Wanda Group andย Visa.

As a FIFA partner, companies receive prime advertising spots and marketing opportunities and get to push their products in front of a global audience of millions ofย people.

Each partner has its own promotional page on the FIFA website. Only Coca-Cola mentioned efforts to become more sustainable and tackle climate change on itsย page.

In contrast, Gazprom boasts of having โ€œthe worldโ€™s largest natural gas reservesโ€ and spells out the extent of its fossil fuel operations from shale gas to being โ€œone of Russiaโ€™s four largest oilย producersโ€.

In 2013, Gazprom began the first oil production from the Arctic shelf, a project strongly opposed by environmental activists who expressed serious concerns over the companyโ€™s safety records, the lack of corporate transparency and the risk of environmentalย damage.

At the time, Greenpeace warned โ€œthe clock is ticking on a major accident in theย regionโ€.

The same year, Gazprom signed a sponsorship deal with FIFA running until the end of thisย year.

Former FIFA president Joseph Blatter and Gazprom management committee chairman Alexey Miller sign official partnrship deal in front of Russian Presidentย Vladimir Putin and Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko (back). Image Credit: Gazpromย 

Gazprom is also known for its close ties to the Kremlin and President Vladimir Putin and recently the company has been criticised for its role in the conflict in Easternย Europe.

The companyโ€™s Nord Stream 2 project will see a gas pipeline run from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea. Critics, including the US and UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson, warned the pipeline will increase energy dependency on Russia and threaten European energy security.

Environmentalists denounced the project as a โ€œgreat gas lock inโ€ with new gas infrastructure locking the Europe into decades of fossil fuel consumptions.ย ย 

Although gas emits less carbon dioxide than other forms of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, scientists have warned that half of the worldโ€™s gas reserves have to stay in the ground to prevent dangerous global warming of more than twoย degrees.

Gazprom did not respond to DeSmog UKโ€™s request forย comment.

UN Climate Change gives a hand to FIFA

As part of its collaboration with UN Climate Change, FIFA is encouraging ticket holders to offset their carbon emission resulting from their travel to Russia for free and have the chance to win two tickets to the final. But there are problems with theย scheme.

For each ticket holder signing up to the initiative on its website, FIFA said it will offset 2.9 tonnes of carbon dioxide – estimated to be the average emission per ticket holder travelling to Russia fromย abroad.

The scheme will be capped to a maximum of 100,000 tonnes of carbon being offset – too little to offset the travel footprint of hundreds of thousands of people expected to attend theย event.

This means fewer than 34,500 fans could offset their travel tickets against the hundreds of thousands of people expected to attend the event. During the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, more than 3.4 million people attended the games.

FIFA has not yet announced the list of offsetting projects but said they would be โ€œverified low-carbon projects in Russian andย abroadโ€.

According to expert estimates commissioned by FIFA, this yearโ€™s World Cup is expected to generate more than 2.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide – with close to 75 percent of emissions resulting from international flights to Russia and travel between different host cities where the games are takingย place.

FIFA has also pledged to offset โ€œall unavoidable emissions over which it has operational controlโ€ estimated to be just above 243,000 tonnes of carbon or 11.2 percent of its overallย emissions.

Offsetting schemes are complex and often controversial initiatives. The UN offsetting mechanism to which FIFA has signed up under the Climate Neutral Now pledge is one that has been marred byย controversy.

A 2016 study by the environmental research institute ร–ko-Institut for the European Commission found that there were โ€œfundamental flawsโ€ in the UNโ€™s clean development offsettingย mechanism.

The report suggested that only seven percent of potential certified emissions reductions credits had a high likelihood of delivering โ€œreal, measurable and additionalโ€ emissionย reductions.

Kelsey Perlman, policy officer at Carbon Market Watch, said: โ€œIf FIFA plans to continue initiatives with offsets surrounded by concerns of fraud and inefficiency, it’s hard to see these efforts as more thanย greenwashing.โ€

She added โ€œtransparencyโ€ was really important and that FIFA should be publishing a detailed list of offsetting projects to beย scrutinised.

Perlmanย added that if FIFA was serious about taking action to reduce its emissions it should move away from complex offsetting schemes and focus on providing finance to green projectsย instead.

A spokesman for FIFA told DeSmog UK: โ€œFIFA is at the forefront of sports organisations when it comes to environmental protection and offsettingย measures.

โ€œSince 2006, there have been projects put in place to measure and mitigate the environmental impact of those events, not only in relation to climate change but also in other areas relevant to sustainability, such as waste management, recycling, and greenย stadiums.โ€

Welcoming FIFAโ€™s collaboration with the UN Climate Change, Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of UN Climate Change said she โ€œcommended FIFA for leading by example in reducing climate impact and encouraging football fans to act on climateย changeโ€.

But campaigners have raised concerns over the UN Climate Change being used as a greenwashing platform at a time when FIFA continues to take sponsorship money from companies which own products are contributing to the climateย crisis.

Bragg, of Corporate Accountability, said: โ€œIn the case of FIFA, the partnership with the UN Climate Change (which already risks being a greenwashing platform) on one hand and sponsorship from the fossil fuel, airline industries on the other is clearย contradiction.โ€

He added that pledges and voluntary commitments such as Carbon Neutral Now were โ€œhighly problematicโ€ and โ€œdeliver more for corporate branding than they do forย actionโ€.

โ€œFirst, these pledges are often used as greenwashing platforms. And second, such pledges can often supplant or displace real and enforceable government regulation,โ€ heย said.

A UN Climate Change spokesman told DeSmog UK it did not receive anything from FIFA in exchange of the association signing up to itsย scheme.

He added: โ€œThe aim of the Carbon Neutral Now Pledge is to encourage companies and organisations, whatever their current level of emissions, to engage in action against climateย change.โ€

FIFA sponsorship: What you get for your moneyย ย 

As part of their sponsorship deals with FIFA, both Qatar Airways and Hyundai are providing transport opportunities for football fans attending the Worldย Cup.

Qatar Airways has launched travel packages to Russia but the offer does not mention the UN Climate Change offsetting initiative which FIFA has signed up to. The company did not respond to the companyโ€™s request forย comment.

Hyundai will also provide โ€œa large fleet of modern vehiclesโ€. Yet, the company does not say whether the fleet will include hybrid or electric vehicles and Hyundai did not respond to DeSmog UKโ€™s questions on theย issue.

During the last World Cup in Brazil, Hyundai and Kia Motors said they provided 1,432 passenger vehicles, and 2,800ย buses.

On its website, Qatar Airways states it is โ€œcontinually improving how we manage our impact on the environment and actively participate in aviationโ€™s approach to tackling climate changeโ€ including through fuel optimisationย programmes.

Hyundai has developed a range of hybrid and electric cars and states on its website: โ€œWhen it comes to reducing emissions and developing alternative-fuel powered cars, Hyundai are ahead of theย curve.โ€

Other FIFA sponsors to the event include bier company Budweiser, fast-food giant McDonalds, Chinese electronic manufacturer Hisense, Chinese dairy company Mengniu and Chinese telecommunication companyย Vivo.

Chinese firms have secured an unprecedented presence at the event after western firms pulled out of sponsoring the event following revelations about the endemic corruption at the heart of footballโ€™s governingย body.

A smaller sponsorship package has also been offered to regional sponsors which include Russian diamond exploration and production company Alrosa, a partially state-owned company which focuses on high exploration potential regions in Russia and Africa.

Another sponsor Russian bank Alpha Bank was rumoured to have ties with Donald Trump. A US cybersecurity firm which investigated the claim later said it did not find any evidence to substantiate theย claims.

Russian Railways and Rostelecom are other regional sponsors of this yearโ€™s Worldย Cup.

Image Credit: Russian President Vladimir Putin holding the FIFA World Cup trophy at a pre-tournament ceremony in Moscow. www.kremlin.ru/Creative Commons/CC BYย 4.0

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