Playing with dual purposes: A study of professional football players engagement in environmental advocacy and activism

Despite a burgeoning literature on athlete activism and advocacy related to a range of social issues, research on athletes’ environmental engagement is still scarce—a surprising gap considering the rise of environmental movements around the globe and pressing concerns related to climate change in particular. Through interviews with 10 professional football players engaged in environmental activism and advocacy, this article helps fill this gap by exploring 1) how professional football players engage in environmental advocacy and activism, 2) ways the players perceive their role in supporting pro-environmental changes, and 3) paradoxes related to their engagement. Our analysis illustrates that although the players’ modes of engaging varied to some extent, they identified some common contradictions and tensions related to social, structural and categorical facets of their engagement. Players often negotiated a liminal position between, on one hand, their aspirations to do pro-environment work, and, on the other, their focus on athletic performance and the need to maneuver economic sustainability incentives that drive clubs, federations and the football industry. Grounded in Giulianotti et al.'s ( 2021 ) analytical framework on “liminal antinomies,” these negotiations are explored in depth, along with the modes of environmental engagement by players and their self-reflections. The liminal antinomies we identified are further discussed in relation to the literature on activism and social change through sports.