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Wednesday, 11 June 2025 | By Climate Champions
As the countdown to the UEFA Women's Euro 2025 in Switzerland in July begins, conversations around climate action in sport are gaining momentum. One of the voices leading the charge is Tessel Middag, a professional footballer playing for Scotland’s Rangers FC. In her career, Tessel has played for clubs like ADO Den Haag, AFC Ajax, Manchester City, West Ham United, and Fiorentina, as well as earning 44 caps for the Dutch national team. Off the pitch, Tessel is a trained historian and a passionate advocate for social and environmental justice.
We spoke to Tessel about the potential for football to become a vital driver of climate action - and how she is using her platform to push for positive change.
It’s been a gradual process for me. My desire to speak out has increased as the crisis has intensified. We used to say things like “what if sea levels rise?”, or “what if temperatures become dangerously high?” But we're now living those realities all around the world. I believe everyone has a role to play in overcoming the climate challenge - for me, that means calling for change through the game of football.
Extreme weather significantly affects football. In the UK alone, Green Football estimates that around 120,000 matches are cancelled each season due to poor pitch conditions caused by flooding. All sorts of climate-related issues affect the game in different parts of the world. For example, in the UK, where I play, excessive flooding and heavy rainfall is a huge issue. In Italy, where I played for a year, droughts made it difficult to maintain playable pitches. These impacts are widespread and only set to worsen without action. By 2050, one in four stadiums in the UK could become unplayable due to extreme weather. Poor pitch conditions not only stop games—they also compromise player safety and performance when games do go ahead.
Unless we take serious action now, this situation is only going to get worse in the years ahead.
Football is watched by billions of fans around the world - giving it enormous influence. With that influence comes a great responsibility for the football’s governing bodies to raise awareness of the climate crisis, and encourage action to tackle it.
Football can have a massive impact by ensuring that corporate sponsors are sustainable companies, whose business models are aligned with the clean energy transition, rather than opposed to it.
Also, governing bodies can enable low-carbon fan travel. For example, the upcoming Women’s Euros will offer fans free public transport to and from the games for the first time, across the eight host cities in Switzerland. This is an important step in integrating sustainable practices into major sporting events, by encouraging fans to opt for eco-friendly transportation options over flying - these good habits can spill over into their daily lives.
There are so many ways to make a difference, but it really starts at the top — we need those in power to ensure that the professional game is helping to tackle the climate crisis, rather than making it worse.
It’s critical. Football’s governing bodies have a duty to reduce pollution and promote the transition to a sustainable world. One of the most impactful things that they can do is to kick fossil fuels out of sport, by ending partnerships with major polluters.
There is a long history of fossil fuel companies sponsoring major sports events as a way to legitimise their role in society - what we call ‘sportswashing.’ These deals embed polluting industries into the fabric of the things that we hold dear - from football to the Olympics. Sportswashing is employed by the fossil fuel industry to normalise their presence and convince the public that oil and gas is needed for a long time to come. In reality, experts from the UN, to the IEA and the IPCC are clear - there should be no new fossil fuel development and coal, oil and gas should be phased out urgently.
Sports washing happens on a major scale, it’s estimated that last year fossil fuel companies invested over five and a half billion dollars across more than 200 sponsorship deals. That’s why the UN Secretary General Guterres has urged countries to stop fuelling the madness” and ban fossil fuel advertising.
Absolutely. Nearly nine out of ten people around the world want more to be done on climate change. People want their clubs and governing bodies to reflect their own values. And they don’t want to be manipulated. Fans are increasingly aware of sportswashing as it gets more and more public attention.
As climate concern grows, sponsorships from polluting companies are out of step with public values. As awareness rises, I would expect sportswashing deals to become unattractive for sports brands - which happened with tobacco advertising some time ago.
Many players, especially in the women’s game, are deeply concerned about the climate crisis. As footballers, we’re constantly asked to promote sponsors—we wear their logos, we play in sponsored stadiums, and stand in front of branded billboards. But, increasingly, players want to have a say in who those sponsors are - and they are making it known that we will not promote polluting companies.
In October 2024, I joined 135 female professional footballers from 27 countries in signing an open letter opposing a major sponsorship deal between FIFA and the world’s largest oil and gas producer. It sent a strong message: football should prioritise people and planet over profit. The media attention the letter received showed that many fans feel the same—football should reflect its values, not just chase profit.
As footballers, we can use our platform to be powerful messengers for change. And if players, clubs, and associations work together, we can make a global impact.
It’s really important that tournaments make use of existing infrastructure as much as possible. Of course, stadiums need to be safe and modern — but building entirely new stadiums just for a single tournament, only for them to go unused afterwards, is something we need to rethink.
Another opportunity is around the matchday experience — offering plant-based food options, and making it easy for fans to travel using public transport. These are all things that organizing bodies can — and should prioritise.
Most importantly, organizing bodies should lead with integrity, keeping pace with the values of society. Players and fans are calling for climate action — it’s time they were listened to.
More than 20 football clubs are united by the principles of the Sports for Climate Action Framework, which is steadily transforming sport by sparking climate conversations in spaces where they’ve been absent and breaking taboos—especially around sponsorship.
Members of the Framework include Race to Zero members Tottenham Hotspur, and Liverpool FC which have public-facing net zero plans. And other clubs are taking action to avoid emissions, for example, Bristol Rovers, Forest Green Rovers, Mansfield Town, and Swindon Town have adopted domestic ‘no-fly’ policies.
And in Dublin, Ireland, Seán McCabe was appointed as football’s first Head of Climate Justice at Bohemian FC in 2021. Under Sean’s leadership, climate justice has become fully integrated into the club’s core mission, leading to a wide range of community-led action on climate and social issues, including their ‘Refugees Welcome’ jersey, which went viral around the world.
Looking more globally, in the Small Island State of the Marshall Islands, the National Football Federation recently launched their first-ever national team shirt — not just as a symbol of sporting pride, but as a striking statement on the existential threat their nation faces from rising sea levels. It’s a powerful reminder of how football can amplify urgent climate realities.
From a player perspective, I want to give a huge shout-out to Sofie Junge Pedersen and Katie Rood who are doing incredible work on climate action. They were co-organisers of the letter we sent last October, and Sofie was named The Guardian's Footballer of the Year for her efforts to bring climate into the public eye.
So there’s a great deal of exciting action taking place within football and other sports around the world, which gives me hope.
Many sustainability issues are similar in both the men’s and women’s game — like sponsorship choices, sustainable travel, and making stadiums more sustainable. There’s definitely a lot of room for collaboration.
The men’s game has been around for a long time, and over that time it’s clear that the game has been heavily influenced by big money. However, due to the different background and history of women’s football, there is a big opportunity for women’s football to do things differently — and better — than the men’s game has done in the past.
As the women’s game grows — and I believe it will reach similar levels in time — it’s important that we keep the focus on people, planet, inclusivity and equality. That means not selling out to the wrong type of sponsors, but also ensuring that women’s football continues to be a safe and inclusive space — for LGBTQ+ fans and players, and one free from sexism, racism, and homophobia.
Football’s leaders can do much more on climate. Governing bodies have made promises to be sustainable, but they continue to sign deals with polluting companies and to expand in unsustainable ways.
But fans and players have power. It’s vital that we use our platforms and our collective voice - as we did with our open letter. I’d really encourage players and fans to speak up if they feel that their clubs, national federations, or global football bodies aren’t living up to the values they expect.
If players, fans, and those running the sport work together to build a more inclusive, values-driven game, football can become a powerful force for solving real-world problems — and that includes the climate crisis.
To young players, or fans who may be scared or uncertain about speaking out: know that you’re not alone. Most people share your concerns. If you’re unsure how to take action — or worried about criticism — please don’t hesitate to reach out to me, or to any of the players who signed the letter to FIFA, or to the many organizations out there like Fossil Free Football that are working on this.
We’ve got your back. Just like on the pitch, football is a team sport — and we’re strongest when we stand together.
