Football in the climate emergency: exploring air travel reduction in the Norwegian senior national football teams

Globalization and commodification trends in football negatively impact the climate in terms of greenhouse gas emissions from leagues and international tournaments. A significant share of these emissions stem from the flying of teams, staff and fans. Using Norway as a case study, we ask what a national football federation is doing and could be doing to reduce its ecological footprint from air travel while maintaining the wellbeing of players and staff. We apply a combination of social practice and wellbeing theories and the Avoid–Shift–Improve (ASI) scheme to identify and understand the material, socio-cultural and normative elements of current travel practices and to outline potential alternatives and more sustainable ones. Empirically, we triangulated qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with senior representatives of the Norwegian Football Association (NFF) and a document analysis of the NFF’s travel policy with quantitative calculations of the distances travelled for all historical games for both senior national teams, and in greater detail, the greenhouse gas emissions from matches played in 2024. We find that NFF and players are in many ways locked in flight-intensive practices and correspondingly high levels of emissions, including the use of charters, half-empty planes, private jets and business class travel. While some potential reforms for the reduction of football-related flights, such as players travelling to foreign destinations directly or via digital tools for team meetings and tournament draws, may be realized immediately, others, such as concentrating international windows and tournaments in specific locations, would require changes in European and global governance systems.