These football stars are sinners of the biggest climate

The Stars on the lawn are in the area of climate protection are no role models for the Fridays-for-Future-youth. Because the CO2 footprint of the twenty Topkicker that were nominated this year for the award "Ballon d'or", is huge. On their flight around the globe you are traveling jointly responsible for the output of 505 tonnes of climate-damaging carbon dioxide. This has been calculated by the British researcher Andrew Welfle, one of the researchers at the University of Manchester to bioenergy and sustainability.

The world's best footballers play a national and international travel for the Champions League games across Europe and for countries in your home. When Argentina's Lionel Messi, nearly 46’000 kilometers. The Barcelona Star is flying within a year more than once around the world and contributes to the footprint of 20.9 tonnes of CO2.

For comparison: in Switzerland lay back in the cut a year, 9000 miles with the aircraft at home and abroad, and cause according to the same calculation of 4.3 tonnes of CO2 – nearly five times less. The Swiss are as a frequent flyer known.

Yet Messi is not the biggest climate sinners. Eight of the twenty selected footballer leave a larger ecological footprint, particularly Marquinhos. The Brazilian is in the service of the French champion Paris St. Germain, with whom he also plays in the Champions League and therefore a lot of traveling. He is offered for countries of the games in his home country up, he puts on a return flight is about 18’000 kilometres. A total of 111’000 miles and an output of 53.5 tons of CO2 per year.

country man Firmino, the Liverpool Star has almost the same amount on the account. His team-mate Mane from Senegal, the South Korean Heung-Min Son of the Tottenham Hotspur and the Brazilian Neymar from Paris St. Germain to fly about 80’000 km and, therefore, nine times further than the Swiss average.

Comparatively little CO2 caused Messi's eternal rival Cristiano Ronaldo. Although he travels a lot for international games for his club Juventus. The distance between the Italian city of Turin and Lisbon, however, is low, which is why in the case of Ronaldo's appearances for Portugal, not so many air miles to accumulate.

researchers Andrew Welfle, has carried out the calculations, see the international soccer scene with many on the continents, distributed game pairings and frequent air travel of cadres, and guide rods as the ideal solution for a "high carbon footprint".

Through such studies a will to be thrown light on the development, he told the Reuters news Agency. "The world governing body, Fifa, but also leagues like the British Premier League and individual Clubs can feel motivated by this to make amends."

Created: 27.11.2019, 11:20 PM