The increasing success of FIFA led football tournaments across the world in 2025 has drawn more criticism on the environmental cost of the sport.
Due to the FIFA Club World Cup, 2026 World Cup preparations, and other events, the carbon footprint of football in the modern world has become a focal point of climate scientists, policymakers, and other sustainability activists. With the world struggling to cope with the increasingly dire effects of climate change, there has been a new sense of urgency regarding whether the sport can be modified to fit the environmental expectations.
The scale of football’s carbon emissions
The popularity of football has a wide-ranging infrastructure and logistical equipment. The staging of international tournaments leads to emissions mainly in air and ground transport, the use of energy in the stadiums, and the supply chains.
Transportation and infrastructure as primary contributors
By 2025, the industry estimates the total world football carbon emissions to exceed over 30 million tonnes of CO2 / year in comparison with countries such as Denmark or Uruguay. Transportation, particularly air travel by players, officials, fans, and media staff all through the continents, is the largest contributor. Other less important but still noteworthy sources are accommodation services, food logistics and energy-consuming stadium operations.
These issues are supported by the environmental impact of previous tournaments. Although Qatar hosts the world cup which is geographically small, it still produced about 3.63 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. Much of this was due to the temporary infrastructure and international fan travel, and the focus on tourism as a factor in leaving a large ecological footprint even on a small-scale tournament.
Tournament growth and carbon intensity
FIFA tournaments have significant increases in their geographical area and occurrence. Large-scale formats and multi-host schemes like those that were set to take place in the 2026 world cup in North America would entail a lot of inter-city movement and the movement is mostly by air. With every new expansion, there are new logistical layers, which augment overall emissions and make mitigating it harder.
FIFA’s strategy of globalizing the game, while commercially successful, has yet to be reconciled with the mounting environmental costs. Without structural reforms to its tournament models, football’s carbon intensity is likely to escalate in step with its global reach.
The 2025 Club World Cup: A case study in environmental impact
The FIFA Club World Cup in 2025 offers a clear snapshot of the sport’s current sustainability challenges. Hosted across multiple U.S. cities, the tournament features 32 clubs from six confederations and spans four weeks—marking its most expansive edition to date.
Emissions exceed original projections
Independent climate monitoring groups have projected that the total emissions tied to the 2025 Club World Cup, when combined with concurrent qualifying tournaments, could surpass 69 million tonnes of CO2. This figure dwarfs FIFA’s own initial forecasts for the 2026 World Cup by a factor of 18, revealing a significant gap between projections and real-world environmental impact.
The primary driver of these emissions remains long-haul air travel by teams and spectators. Despite attempts by host cities to green their transport infrastructure and increase public transit options, overall air traffic related to the tournament continues to grow.
Infrastructure and host city vulnerabilities
Most of the host venues like the AT&T stadium in Dallas are also under an added environmental pressure by the increasing local temperatures. Hot days (above 35degC) are increasing over time in the American southern region, which raises the cooling needs of the stadiums and overworks the electrical systems.
In addition, the carbon price of the building or refurbishment of stadiums is a significant issue. The discharges of these processes may amount to hundreds of thousands of tonnes per facility. Some stadiums are designed with renewable energy and with sustainable materials but there are still those that are still based on carbon intensive designs.
Social and ethical dimensions of tournament emissions
The cost to FIFA of tournaments in terms of the environment is not limited to carbon numbers. All these effects also touch on the issue of equity, social responsibility, and climate justice.
Disproportionate effects on vulnerable populations
It is the indirect costs which are caused by the global sports organizations which are emitting large quantities of carbon which indirectly affect communities who did not create the problem but are the most susceptible to its consequences. As the world’s wealthiest countries host and gain profitability in mega-events, the poor countries are exposed to more weather unpredictabilities, food insecurity, and displacement due to climate.
The environmental policies of FIFA such as the net-zero in 2040 commitment and the target of reducing emissions by 50 percent by 2030 have not provided mechanisms of clear enforcement. Critics claim that these objectives can only be abstract since there is no mandatory reporting and third-party control.
Corporate sponsorship and credibility gaps
FIFA is still sponsoring fossil fuel-related companies. Such coalitions sabotage its climate objectives and bring into question its credibility by environmentalists. The alignment of corporate alliances and sustainability principles is one of the major challenges that the leadership of the organization is to pass.
The environmental scientist and sport sustainability commentator Stuart Parkinson has warned that the time to stop making gestures has come with regard to governing bodies. He observes that football is in danger of becoming an environmental liability instead of an agent of positive global interaction unless the tournament structures and commercial structures are modified.
The path forward for reducing football’s carbon footprint
Football can serve as a world medium of environmental consciousness. However, to actualize this possibility, FIFA will have to implement structural transformations in the way it conceives, designs and stages its tournaments.
Reforming formats and integrating sustainability
Restructuring of tourism may contribute greatly to the reduction of emissions. The major steps that can be taken to decrease the logistical emissions are centralization of competition phases to limit the inter-city travel, regional fan hubs to limit the long-distance attendance, and investing in local club partnerships to limit the host cities.
This would be transpired by integrating real-time monitoring of emissions at the stadiums and event sites supported by third party audit. Also, by focusing on the adoption of renewable energy sources, restricting the application of air conditioning when it is not necessary, and using environmentally certified construction, one can also decrease the level of carbon.
Accountability and governance innovation
Sustainability commitments need to be based on a course of action that is measurable and enforced in order to be effective. The involvement of stakeholders such as clubs, fans, players, sponsors and environmental groups is necessary in the formation of shared ownership of the emissions targets.
Such regulatory instruments as compulsory carbon reporting and performance based environmental conditions on host bids would be a move beyond rhetoric to responsibility. The changes, in their turn, can be used as role models in other world industries that are major emitters.
Football’s role in the global climate conversation is evolving. The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup has illuminated both the scale of the challenge and the urgency for a new direction. As the world’s most-watched sport, football wields immense influence but whether it can wield that influence responsibly remains unresolved.
The trajectory of FIFA’s environmental credibility may well hinge on the next few years. Will it continue prioritizing commercial expansion, or can it lead a reinvention of global sport grounded in sustainability? The answer may shape not only the future of football, but also its relationship with the planet and the people who sustain both.
