Football Goes Green: Four Organisations Score Environmental Certification
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.
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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
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