Green World Cup?

9 December 2010

This summer's football World Cup will be a carbon-neutral tournament, making host nation Germany a clear winner in the green stakes. Match report by Pete May.

Getting to matches

Mark Perryman, author of Ingerland: Travels with a football nation (RRP £12.99, Simon & Schuster), finds many advantages to cycling as a footy fan. "We'll be taking our bikes to all the England games at the World Cup in Germany. In every country except Britain, bikes are easy to take on trains. I feel safer in the cycle lanes, we get closer to the ground and can get away quicker".

Normally, the police just wave you on outside grounds as they assume you're not part of the football crowd.

Mark Perryman, on cycling to football matches

A green World Cup?

At the 2006 World Cup, cycling fans will be welcomed and the word green will apply to more than the goalkeeper's jersey. For the first time, FIFA, working with UNEP, has incorporated environmental aims into the World Cup.

One of the objectives of FIFA's Green Goal initiative is to create a carbon-neutral tournament. To make up for some of its emissions, the German Football Association is to invest €500,000 in creating bio-gas for cooking in Tamil Nadu, a region of India
decimated by the tsunami.

To compensate for the electricity used to power floodlights, official supplier EnBW will feed 13 million
kilowatt hours of hydro-electric power from Switzerland into the German national grid.

At Nuremburg's Frankenstadion the pitch is watered with rainwater collected on the roof, the car park surfaces allow water seepage, the loos have sensor-activated water-saving systems, and all new buildings are designed to save energy.

Trains, not planes nor automobiles

Green Goal also aims to increase public transport use. "Fans often get fined for speeding on the motorways, so it's safer and cheaper to promote train use," says German Tourist Board's Football Campaign Manager, Joanne Ezekiel.

"Deutsche Bahn, the German rail service, is offering a £69 return special from England to Cologne, a Weltmeister ticket that takes you from any one venue to another for £43, and a World Champion Pass that gives you unlimited travel in Germany from 7 June to 11 July for £225," adds Ezekiel. This is good value considering that a standard Eurostar return to much-nearer Paris costs at least £65.

And the players too...

To prove Germany's eco-commitment the national team hopes to travel to some of the matches by train, and has been given 100 free passes for use on Deutsche Bahn.

Mark Perryman hopes that England too might soon be using more sustainable transport. He quips: "If England win the World Cup then I'll gladly buy David Beckham a sponsored bike!"

Pete May is the author of Hammers in the Heart: West Ham's journey back to the Premiership (Mainstream, £9.99).

More info at German National Tourist Office >