For billions of people, football means community, identity, and belonging. When I lived in Costa Rica, the football pitch was where everyone would meet after work and play under the trees of the tropical rainforest. Climate change is coming for that too.
We talk a lot about what climate change will do to coastlines, harvests, and economies. We talk far less about what it will do to culture and to the social fabric that holds communities together. With the World Cup this summer, football is a powerful place to start that conversation, precisely because the stakes are so visible and so widely felt.
Building climate resilience into football could be a decisive way to strengthen social cohesion during times of polarization and economic division. Taking adaptation seriously means good stewardship of something that matters to people.
Climate Change is Already on the Pitch
At EURO 2024 in Germany, Dortmund's stadium was flooded during a match. Fan zones in Cologne, Berlin, and Gelsenkirchen were canceled entirely as storm warnings brought heavy rain, hail, and gale-force winds across the host cities. If this can happen at one of the world's most modern, well-resourced tournaments, it can happen anywhere (1).
In Qatar in 2022, long before the world arrived for the World Cup, workers had already died in extreme heat during construction. During the tournament itself, schedules were adjusted to night shifts and regular hydration breaks were built into games (2).
In May 2024, the Arena do Grêmio in Porto Alegre was submerged, but the flooding went far beyond one stadium. The figures reveal the scale of the tragedy: 184 dead, 25 missing, 478 municipalities affected, approximately 2,400 houses destroyed, more than 81,000 people homeless, and around 2.3 million people affected directly or indirectly. Climate change has doubled the likelihood of heavy rainfall events in the region, with projections suggesting extreme flooding could become five times more frequent in southern Brazil (3).
The FIFA World Cup in 2026 was partly held in Los Angeles, a city that witnessed devastating wildfires in early 2025. Scientists have found that two stadiums, in Houston and Monterrey, could see temperatures reach 50 degrees Celsius, with serious implications for player performance, fan safety, and legal liability (4).
The impact is not only at the elite level. In England, matches at the grassroots level are increasingly being canceled due to waterlogged pitches. Within the next three decades, one quarter of English football league grounds will be at risk of flooding every season. Grassroots clubs, with their limited budgets, are the least equipped to respond (5).
A Two-Way Street
The relationship between football and climate change runs in both directions. Football is not only a victim of climate change. It is also a contributor. A recent report found that global carbon emissions from professional football amount to around 64-66 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year, roughly equivalent to the annual emissions of Austria (6).
According to the World Meteorological Organization, there is now a 70% chance that at least one of the next five years will exceed the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming threshold on average. Climate change is no longer a future scenario. Even as mitigation remains urgent, many of its impacts are already locked in and will intensify (7).
The good news is that changes in how football operates can have an outsized effect on both reducing emissions and building resilience in the sport and in the communities around it.
What is at Risk and What Can Be Done
The risks to football go beyond flooding. Here is an overview of the key vulnerabilities and the responses that are available (10).
Player and fan health
Risk: Extreme heat, UV exposure
Response: Heat protocols, cooling zones, schedule changes, UV and cooling kits
Pitch and facility damage
Risk: Flooding, storms, drought
Response: Improved drainage, flood-resilient design, water recycling
Power and infrastructure
Risk: Extreme weather disruption
Response: Backup energy, decentralized power, resilient transport planning
Match cancellations
Risk: Waterlogging, storms, wildfires
Response: Indoor or hybrid facilities, flexible scheduling, pitch covers
Water availability
Risk: Drought and water restrictions
Response: Drought-resistant grass, recycled water, synthetic alternatives
Financial losses
Risk: Canceled matches, damaged assets
Response: Climate risk insurance, adaptation liquidity buffers
Community access
Risk: Flooded grassroots facilities
Response: Public investment in resilient local infrastructure
What Good Looks Like
Manchester City: Every Drop Counts
Water scarcity is one of the more quietly pressing climate risks for football, particularly during drought periods. In partnership with water technology firm Xylem, Manchester City built a 12-million-liter tank beneath the pitches at their City Football Academy that collects and treats rainwater and irrigation runoff, now providing up to 100% of the training ground's daily irrigation supply. Since launching, the initiative has saved 80 million liters of clean water. The underlying principles, rainwater harvesting, smart irrigation, and reduced dependence on public water networks, are applicable well beyond the Premier League (8).
The Australian Open: A Heat Policy Worth Studying
Tennis has been grappling with extreme heat longer than football, and the Australian Open's Extreme Heat Policy offers a useful model. A science-based 1-5 scale incorporating radiant heat, air temperature, humidity, and wind speed governs whether matches can proceed, be suspended, or require additional breaks. Multiple stadiums have retractable roofs and air conditioning. Football governing bodies could learn from this approach as they develop their own heat protocols for a warming world (9).
What Needs to Happen
Decarbonization remains urgent, but alongside mitigation, clubs and governing bodies need to invest in adaptation, preparing for the climate impacts that are already locked in. Here is where I think the practical priorities lie.
First, clubs need to assess their actual vulnerabilities. Map exposure across facilities, playing surfaces, energy systems, transport access, and workforce. Understand what is at risk and when. The German Federal Institute for Sport Science has dedicated an entire research program, Klima SAN, to this question for sports facilities, and it is worth drawing on.
Second, quantify the losses. Understand what canceled matches, damaged infrastructure, and reduced attendance actually cost, financially, socially, and reputationally. This is often the step that unlocks budget for adaptation because it makes the business case legible to boards and funders.
Third, run the cost-benefit analysis. Identify which investments, better drainage, covered facilities, heat protocols, and insurance products make sense at which budget levels. The answer will be different for a Premier League club and a Sunday league side, but the question is the same.
Fourth, build in equity. If only wealthy clubs can adapt, the community foundations of football will erode. Governing bodies need to ensure that adaptation funding reaches grassroots clubs. This is not just a social obligation. It is how football protects its own future.
Fifth, coordinate. Clubs and governing bodies could promote awareness around adaptation and establish knowledge exchange of best practices. Where systemic risk is identified, coordinate with city authorities and other affected organizations. The Arena do Grêmio didn’t flood in isolation. Football depends entirely on the surrounding infrastructure, transport networks, power grids, and safe public spaces, all of which face the same climate pressures.
Why This Matters Beyond Sport
Football has endured economic crises, wars, and pandemics. Its resilience is extraordinary, and so is its reach. Around four billion people follow the sport globally. That gives football clubs and governing bodies a platform for climate communication that most governments would envy.
Investing in adaptation in this context is not just about protecting matchdays. It is about protecting communities, particularly the grassroots clubs that serve as social infrastructure in towns and cities around the world. It is about maintaining the business case of professional sports and making football competitive and safe on a heating planet. And it is about demonstrating that adaptation is also about keeping the things we love.
About the Author
Sabrina Bachrach is an independent advisor specializing in adaptation and resilience finance and climate policy strategy.
She works with international organizations, financial institutions, consultancies, and governments to design strategies that are credible, investable, and aligned with global frameworks.
She has advised KPMG, PwC, UNFCCC, and the Atlantic Council Climate Resilience Center, among others.
References
1. BBC Weather — Grassroots football and waterlogged pitches in England. https://www.bbc.com/weather/articles/c6270n2n4zxo
2. TIME — Thousands of Migrant Workers Died in Qatar's Extreme Heat. The World Cup Forced a Reckoning (2022). https://time.com/6227277/qatar-extreme-heat-world-cup-2022/
3. COP30 Brasil — Floods in Rio Grande do Sul Exposed the Climate Crisis (2025). https://cop30.br/en/news-about-cop30/floods-in-rio-grande-do-sul-exposed-the-climate-crisis
4. El País — Footballers to compete in 50 degrees C heat at 2026 World Cup, study warns (2024). https://english.elpais.com/climate/2024-11-28/footballers-to-compete-in-50c-heat-at-2026-world-cup-study-warns.html
5. Met Office - https://weather.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/getclimateready/football
6. New Weather Institute — Dirty Tackle: The Growing Carbon Footprint of Football (2025). https://www.newweather.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Dirty_tackle_The_growing_carbon_footprint_of_football.pdf
7. World Resources Institute — 1.5 Degrees C: Understanding the World's Critical Warming Threshold (2025). https://www.wri.org/insights/1-5-degrees-c-target-explained
8. Manchester City / Xylem — https://www.xylem.com/en-na/resources/blog-posts/making-waves-manchester-city-football-club-champions-water-reuse/
9. Australian Open - https://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/articles/cp37k6yy731o
10. Lindner-Cendrowska, K. et al. — Prospective heat stress risk assessment for professional soccer players in the context of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Scientific Reports, Vol. 14, Article 26976 (2024). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-77540-1
