Why grassroots football struggles to go green

This study focuses on the extent of pro-environmental activity within community football clubs in England and explores the structural barriers limiting environmental action at the grassroots level of the sport. Grassroots football involves thousands of clubs, facilities, volunteers, and participants, creating substantial cumulative environmental impacts despite limited attention in football sustainability research. This article shifts the focus away from elite professional football and toward the everyday realities of community clubs and volunteers responsible for organizing the sport locally.

The paper consists in semi-structured interviews with volunteers from community football clubs located across one English Football Association county. Interviews explored club organization, existing environmental practices, barriers to environmental action, and perceptions of sustainability within grassroots football.

The findings showed that community football clubs engaged in very limited environmental activity, with most initiatives restricted to small-scale actions such as car sharing or recycling. A major barrier was that most clubs did not own or control their facilities, limiting their ability to influence energy use, pitch maintenance, or infrastructure decisions. Financial pressures, volunteer workload, and governing body requirements also reduced the priority given to environmental sustainability.

The study argues that improving environmental sustainability in grassroots football requires organizational and structural change beyond simply encouraging individual behavioral change among volunteers and clubs.

CITE: Carmichael, A. (2023). The organisation of community football, a barrier to environmental change. Managing Sport and Leisure, 28(2), 149-163. DOI: 10.1080/23750472.2020.1865189