In this difficult season on the pitch for us, it was nice to hear we are at least flying high in a virtual league. The Green Football Cup is an initiative supported by the Football Supporters Association (FSA), the Trust is an affiliate member. The FSA has provided an update on how the Cup is going this season, ahead of their flagship Green Football Weekend this weekend (3rd – 5th February).
Leicester sit second in the Green Football Club this season, behind Manchester United. with over 80 clubs represented, view here
Given our respective size of fan bases, pound for pound we should arguably be placed on top. How the cup works is by fans of their club signing up, and then scoring ‘goals’ for their team through logging socially or environmentally friendly or sustainable actions. Our 115 registered players are claimed to have saved over 6,000 kgs of carbon dioxide this season through their choices. Here’s a sample of some of the things that would count:
- 1 goal – turn down your heating by 1 degree
- 3 goals – set your boiler temperature flow below 55 degrees
- 3 goals – eat a vegetarian meal (as a vegetarian since the days before names on shirts this is my only chance of becoming our record scorer!)
- 4 goals – donate to a food bank
- 15 goals – a group of 10 make a journey on foot which they would normally have made by cars or minibus etc
The wider goal is naturally to encourage lobbying of clubs to become greener – eg reusable cups, recycling signage, sustainable transport options, better veggie options.
We’ve all got different appetite levels for screen time and engaging with this kind of thing, but it sounded to me like worth a shot for footy-loving youngsters who I can clearly see are generally far more environmentally aware than most of us were at their age. More info can be found at www.greenfootballweekend.com.
Graham Tracey, Trust Board Member