New tool to measure football construction’s carbon emissions
Wednesday, June 4, 2025
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To mark World Environment Day, UEFA has launched a dedicated methodology to help national associations, clubs and leagues measure the often overlooked embodied carbon emissions of their football infrastructure construction.
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The methodology will help organisations account for the environmental impact of football-related construction projects.
It provides a framework to measure the embodied greenhouse gas emissions of construction – emissions associated with its entire lifecycle, including the extraction of raw materials and any manufacturing processes during development, construction, maintenance or demolition, excluding operational emissions.
The methodology can be used for a wide range of buildings and infrastructure, including stadiums, training grounds, offices, hotels and housing. It is designed to support football stakeholders of varying sizes across Europe, from clubs to national associations.
A growing toolkit
The embodied carbon emissions methodology adds to UEFA’s growing toolkit of resources to help our stakeholders address football’s environmental impact. It is directly integrated into the UEFA Carbon Footprint Calculator, which was launched in March 2024 to guide football organisations in following international standards around measuring, managing and disclosing their greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, the UEFA Sustainable Infrastructure Guidelines were released in 2022 to encourage the European football community to embed best environmental, social and governance practices into the planning, development and management of sports venues.
Addressing current and future needs
Given the scale of infrastructure projects within football – notably the rebuilding, reconstruction or renovation of stadiums – the associated embodied emissions can be significant, yet they are often not understood or addressed to the same extent as operational emissions.
The new methodology helps tackle that issue, ensuring that any infrastructure-related emissions are uniformly considered, allowing for comparisons and guaranteeing future validity.
The geographic and economic diversity of UEFA’s 55 member associations was integrated into the methodology. It has been developed based on work jointly undertaken by the Carbon Trust and a working group led by UEFA, composed of:
- Six national associations (Albania, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway, Romania)
- Two leagues (DFL Deutsche Fussball Liga GmbH and Ligue de Football Professionnel)
- Nine clubs (ACF Fiorentina, Brentford FC, Brighton & Hove Albion, Eintracht Frankfurt, FC Lausanne-Sport, FC Porto, Real Betis Balompié, Tottenham Hotspur, VfB Stuttgart)
- A stadium operator (Alphamega Stadium)
A webinar presenting the new methodology will be held later this month, involving representatives from a club and a UEFA national association.
