With football’s Premier League to start tomorrow (16 August), Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) has teamed up with Fossil Free Football to award the “Black Boot” trophy in a bid to encourage sustainable travel such the coach.
It follows a BBC study conducted last year which found that, during a two-month period, Premier League clubs took 81 short-haul domestic flights to and from 100 matches. Journey times ranged from 27 minutes and the average was 42 minutes.
CBT is calling on football clubs to reduce their carbon footprints by using coach and rail instead of flying.
To support its aims, Fossil Free Football and CBT will call out the worst offenders on social media throughout the season by awarding the Black Boot Trophy. With “Player of the Season”, “Man of the Match” and “Team of the Month” awards up for grabs, CBT is urging football fans to flag any players or teams posting about flying to a match by tagging @cbtransport and @blackboottrophy.
A statement from CBT reads: “Changing the way we travel is one of the most effective things we can do the reduce carbon emissions. Domestic flights emit seven times more emissions than the equivalent rail journey and ten times more than the equivalent coach journey.”
