Free Kicks project

Free Kicks project

Deliverables

Football Goes Green: Four Organisations Score Environmental Certification

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

6 November 2025, London, UK: FC Porto, Malmö FF, Real Betis Balompié, and the Romanian Football Federation have obtained environmental management registration. Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) registration has been granted through work with an EU-funded project, FREE KICKS.* This achievement sets a new standard for environmental governance in football clubs and federations.

The FREE KICKS project, co-ordinated by the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies and in partnership with FC Porto, Fundación Real Betis Balompié, Malmö FF, Racing Club, Romanian Football Federation, European Football Clubs and Sport Positive, has enabled these football organisations to reach this significant milestone.

EMAS is a voluntary management instrument to evaluate, report, and improve organisations’ environmental performance, rewarding organisations based on three key principles:

  • Performance: Managing and continuously improving their environmental impact.
  • Transparency: Openly sharing environmental information with the public.
  • Credibility: Having their environmental management system verified by independent experts, thoroughly. 

To achieve certification, organisations must conduct an environmental audit to assess their current impact, develop and adopt a robust environmental policy and program and introduce and implement an environmental management system. 

The FREE KICKS project set a goal for three partners to obtain EMAS certification and has exceeded this goal, with four football organisations being certified. FC Porto led the way, being the first of the project and also the first sports organisation in Portugal and Europe to receive the EU EMAS label on 11 March, 2024. Real Betis followed on 22 August 2025, FRF on 12 September 2025, and Malmö FF on 17 October 2025.

This milestone highlights the EU-funded FREE KICKS project’s influence on professional football clubs and associations to incorporate environmental management practices and sustainable organisational models, focusing on operational activities.

“Our objective was to have three football organisations certified with EMAS, so we are happy to have achieved four registrations in the end,” said Tiberio Daddi, Scientific Coordinator of the FREE KICKS project. “Our research group [Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies] has more than 20 years of experience with these instruments, and through this project we strongly believe that football clubs can significantly improve their environmental governance by implementing them.”

The FREE KICKS project is a 30-month-long project, co-funded by the EU, that aims to trigger football’s transition towards the goals of the Green Deal and the New Circular Economy Action Plan, through the topics of circular economy and environmental sustainability within sport organisations.

For press enquiries of for more information, please contact:

[email protected]

* Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them

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Romanian Football Federation Brings Awareness to FREE KICKS Project during International Matches

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The FREE KICKS project gained significant visibility from the actions of project partner FRF, during the latter part of the year. Matches of the Romanian Men’s and Women’s National Teams, in addition to the U21 and U20 teams allowed for the project’s banners to be displayed in stadiums, reaching thousands of fans in attendance and millions of viewers on television.

Highlights:

  1. Romania vs. Lithuania
     UEFA Nations League – 9/9/2024
     This match drew 28,125 spectators in the stadium and was broadcast to a large TV audience of 1.6 million people.
     Score: 3-1 for Romania. 
  2. Romania vs. Kosovo
     UEFA Nations League – 15/11/2024
    A strong number of 49,977 fans turned out, selling out the National Arena Stadium and reaching over 2.02 million people on TV.
     Score: 3-0 for Romania due to abandoned match. 
  3. Romania vs. Cyprus
     UEFA Nations League – 18/11/2024
     It was a near-capacity match with a crowd of 45,244 fans and over 1.7 million people tuned in to the TV broadcast.
     Score: 4-1 for Romania. 
  4. Romania vs. Poland
     UEFA Women’s EURO Qualifier – 25/10/2024
     Held at the Arch of Triumph Stadium Bucharest, 3000 spectators were in the stands.
     Score: 2-1 for Poland. 
  5. Romania vs. Montenegro
     UEFA EURO U21 2025 Qualifiers – 06/09/2024
     6,500 supporters filled the sold-out Eugen Popescu Stadium Targoviste.
     Score: 1-0 for Romania. 
  6. Romania vs. Switzerland
     UEFA EURO U21 2025 Qualifiers – 15/10/2024
     This match drew 9,056 fans to Rapid Stadium Bucharest stadium
     Score: 3-1 for Romania. 
  7. Romania vs. Switzerland
     U20 National Team Match -14/10/2024
     The Eugen Popescu Stadium Targoviste was lively with 2057 spectators in attendance.
     Score: 2-2.

Additionally, Voxpop interviews with Romanian National Team supporters were shown in the stadiums during the matches as mentioned above. In these videos, fans shared their thoughts and opinions on the FRF’s efforts to enhance circularity and sustainability within the organisation.

#EUFreeKicks

*Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

Mid-Term Conference Presented at Sport Positive Summit 2024

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On 9th October 2024 in London, the mid-term conference of FREE KICKS* was hosted during Sport Positive Summit 2024. Being open to the 600 on-site attendees, and also being live streamed and recorded, it brought together the partners of FREE KICKS, as well as EU officials, to share progress on the project and key information to sport and football attendees to progress their work on sustainability.

The conference was hosted by FREE KICKS project leader S.Anna School of Advanced Studies’ Associate Professor in Sustainability Management, Tiberio Daddi, with Alessio Novi of the same institution setting the scene for the session with FREE KICKS work to date.

Novi shared key findings from environmental footprint calculations undertaken by project partners. These findings include the average CO2 emitted by one football match is equal to a car driving from Rome to Hong Kong, 72 times OR the Co2 absorbed by 1202 trees in one year. Additionally, the largest average environmental footprint from football matches are fan mobility, stadium and training facility energy consumption and the environmental impacts from food and beverages consumed.

Another major project milestone is FREE KICKS partner, FC Porto, being EMAS certified. EMAS registration is a voluntary governance tool for improving environmental performance. Emilien Gasc, Counsellor – Climate, Environment, Energy, Delegation of the EU to the UK joined the conference to share more about their work.

Gasc began by answering the question; why football? “We believe the global football industry is responsible for 30 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. In local communities, football is a trusted community source” he shared. The popularity of EMAS is clear, with 4000 registered organisations in the EU currently. Benefits of EMAS registration mentioned by Gasc include improved environmental performance – 70% of registered EMAS organisations believe they have achieved savings – and improved legal compliance, due to a better understanding of staff and suppliers.

The conference was completed with an interactive panel discussion between FREE KICKS partners from Malmö FF, Real Betis Balompié, FC Porto and Romanian Football Federation. In this discussion, they share insights on the process of their own environmental impact assessments and solutions that can help drive positive change forward.

The full conference recording can be accessed here.

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** Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them

Report on the Assessment of
the Supply Chain Governance of Football Organisations

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The latest electronic FREE KICKS* report explores the environmental governance needs of football supply chains, identified through a comprehensive organisational analysis.  The goal of this report is to identify the environmental governance gaps and needs, as well as improvement opportunities, of each participating football organisation from a supply chain perspective.

The assessment was conducted through desk analysis and interviews. The report maps the FREE KICKS partners’ current state of environmental management governance and identifies key actors, responsibilities, and departments involved in operations that significantly impact the environment. It also considers relevant indirect environmental impacts along the supply chain. The analysis pinpoints governance gaps and needs, offering improvement opportunities and best practices for better environmental governance.

Read the full report here.

* Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

European Commission: EMAS contribution towards higher sustainability in football – FC Porto’s road to EMAS registration

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FC Porto is the first sports club in Portugal and Europe to achieve EMAS certification, making an important contribution to sustainability.

With the European Football Championship 2024 to kick-off on 14th June in Germany and the Olympic Games official inauguration on the 26th July in Paris, the role of sports in achieving sustainability and preserving the planet is more than crucial.

The ambitions of the European Green Deal, including carbon neutrality by 2050, can only be reached if all parts of society are actively involved in tackling the challenges head on. Sport is no exception.

While it is estimated that the global football industry produces more than 30 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, primarily due to travel, stadium construction, and waste, there are tools and schemes, such as the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme, that can help football clubs and other stakeholders in the sector to systematically analyze and reduce their direct and indirect environmental impacts and set up measures to reduce them.

What Can a Football Club Do to Be More Sustainable?

The role Football Clubs can play is twofold. On the one hand, clubs can start an analysis of their most significant environmental impacts from water, waste consumption, biodiversity impacts and also different pollutant emissions. The Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) is a step-by-step method which helps any organization, including football clubs, to better understand and identify their overall environmental impacts and establish systematic programmes to reduce them.

On the other hand, football clubs have a significant role in promoting sustainability, given their large fan bases and wide audience. Through the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) requirement to develop a publicly available Environmental Statement summarizing their strategy to reduce their identified impacts, EMAS is also a useful tool to communicate with organizations stakeholders and achieve transparency. Thus, Football clubs can set standards and improve awareness of environmental challenges and achievements.

FC Porto’s Commitment to Sustainability through EMAS registration

FC Porto has undergone this process and managed to secure its EMAS certification on March 11th, 2024, making it the first sports organization in Portugal and Europe to receive the EU EMAS label.

To achieve EMAS certification, FC Porto began an environmental audit to assess their current impact. They developed and adopted a robust environmental policy and program, introduced and implemented an environmental management system, prepared an environmental statement, and finally secured verification by an independent accredited EMAS verifier. Porto Estádio, responsible for the management and operation of the Porto stadium, has already finalized its EMAS registration process.

The FREE KICKS Project

FC Porto has benefited from the support of the FREE KICKS project, co-funded by the European Union to promote circular economy and environmental sustainability in soccer organizations.

The FREE KICKS project supports football’s transition towards the goals of the Green Deal and the New Circular Economy Action Plan by promoting leading-edge environmental management practices among national football associations and professional clubs. The project focuses on assessing sustainability needs, improving environmental governance, and calculating environmental footprints using the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) or Organization Environmental Footprint (OEF) standards. With support from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA), each partner organization participating in the project, namely Fundación Real Betis Balompie, Malmö FF, Racing Club, Romanian Football Federation, European Club Association (ECA) and Sport Positive, will define its own Environmental Improvement Plan.

The Romanian Club is expected to register for EMAS in September. Two other clubs, Real Betis and Malmö, are currently in the initial stages of cooperation. Following the Romanian association, it is expected that Real Betis, a club from Seville that plays in the Spanish league, will also be able to register for EMAS. We are looking forward to it!

What Makes This Achievement Significant?

FC Porto, a top Liga Portugal Betclic club, has significant influence on fans and other clubs. As the first sports organization in Portugal and Europe to obtain EMAS certification, they set a powerful example. Globally, only 23 of over 4,000 EMAS-certified organizations in the EU are in sports, making FC Porto, a pioneer in the sector.

The benefits of EMAS certification entail more efficient resource management, cost savings, and stronger community relationships. This certification also aligns with the city of Porto’s commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2030.

Filipe Araújo, vice-president of the Porto Chamber, emphasized that this certification not only highlights the excellent work FC Porto has done in sustainability but also inspires others to understand and emulate their efforts.

Read the full article here.

* Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them