During Day One of the Social Football Summit 2023, the panel ‘Germany 2024: ESG Strategy’ was staged, featuring Michele Uva, UEFA’s Director of Social & Environmental Sustainability, who talked about how the continent’s top football body will approach sustainability at the European Championship scheduled for next June.

In the panel, moderated by Riccardo Luna, Uva recounted the steps that led UEFA to the construction of this ESG Strategy for Euro2024. “Today there are 14 of us dealing with the sustainability of the next European championships. When you deal with this you have to look ten years ahead, not at tomorrow. Germany 2024 will adopt the claim ‘Road to zero’: it means that we have to study, through data, how to get to minimising emissions’.

Uva went on to emphasise: ‘Having 10 stadiums ready in Germany already helps, as the construction of a new one would have had a certain environmental impact. We are talking about 500,000 tonnes of emissions compared to, for example, 6 million in Qatar. We will give the national teams a list of recommendations on environmental behaviour’.

The German infrastructure aspect will also be crucial, as explained by UEFA’s Director of Social & Environmental Sustainability: ‘UEFA is investing 82 million Euro to make Euro2024 sustainable, of which 17 million for transport. We have reached an agreement on transport, allowing fans to travel easily to Germany by train, with discounted fares. The European Championship lasts a month, but we have to give a legacy’.