“The perfect ecological sporting event is the one that doesn’t take place.” This quote does not come from a member of the “Last Generation”, but from DFB media director Steffen Simon. Of course, the DFB will still host the European Football Championship next summer.
But Germany wants to set standards – if not on the pitch, then in terms of sustainability. The promise of tournament director Philipp Lahm is that the European Championship should be more sustainable than any other before it. But can the European Championship really become the sustainable “summer fairy tale” that the DFB dreams of? We will discuss this at the 10th Deutschlandfunk sports conference on November 9th.
Germany wants to do it differently. EM’s mobility partner, for example, is not an airline, but Deutsche Bahn. Special offers and more trains are intended to convince as many fans as possible to use trains instead of planes. An important step, because the arrival and departure of fans is by far the largest cause of CO2 emissions.
But the European Championship should not only be ecologically sustainable, but also socially sustainable, with effects that can be felt right up to the village club’s sports field. Eckart von Hirschhausen is someone who, with his “Healthy Earth – Healthy People” foundation, is committed to sustainability in all areas of life.
He said in a keynote speech: “If the players came by train, the whole world would be talking about it. If the team from Paris came by TGV and not by plane and if the ICEs also arrived, then the Germans would also talk about it.” The CEO of the DFL Foundation, Franziska Fey, emphasized that ecology was not the only factor should be when the sustainability of major sporting events is discussed.
That could be possible at Euro 2024, at least says Tim Thormann. The sustainability manager for the European Championships in Germany explains that “team mobility” is a big factor. The tournament schedule was adjusted so that the teams within certain clusters remained in the preliminary round. This could make traveling by train possible.
Gerd Thomas is chairman of the board of FC Internationale Berlin, the first amateur club to receive a sustainability certificate. He knows the difficulties of making club life sustainable. With regard to an ideal sports facility, he said: “We have to think about how the energy is generated. Of course we are talking about solar, geothermal energy, LED floodlights. In the Berlin-Tempelhof district, I think only three places have been converted to LED . This is complete madness.” Annika Rittmann from Fridays For Future criticized the prioritization of investments in sport. Professional football, for example, certainly has enough resources to take sustainability into account when planning major sporting events.
Nicole Mündelein, sustainability manager at Host City Dortmund, explains the UEFA and DFB guidelines for Euro 2024: recycling, sustainable clothing, green electricity and reusable tableware in the fan zone. There is also a council resolution on sustainable procurement.
The German Olympic Sports Confederation dreams of an even bigger sporting event than the European Football Championship: the Olympic Games. The DOSB has just started a process to develop a concept that has a majority in Germany after various failed applications. This question was also discussed at the sports conference in a debate between an Olympic opponent and a supporter. There are great reservations about a possible application, as the failed applications from Hamburg and Munich have shown. At the same time, the sports associations point out the opportunities that an application would offer for Germany.