Earth FC: Defending Where...

While most campaigns leverage football to promote their messages, Earth FC uniquely centers its focus directly on the sport itself.

At first glance, this initiative may seem like yet another effort to link sports with climate activism. However, a deeper look reveals a key insight: Earth FC contends that climate change is already an intrinsic part of football.

This fundamental distinction is crucial to the project’s philosophy.

During my conversation with campaign director Jenna Lamb, she emphasized the concept of a ‘football-forward’ strategy. Earth FC is rooted in the existing culture, communities, and emotional ties associated with the game. It begins with football and explores how climate change is transforming the environments, individuals, and daily practices that uphold the sport.

This is a subtle yet significant shift.

Frequently, environmental campaigns urge football fans to engage with climate change as a remote, global issue. In contrast, Earth FC approaches the problem by asking what occurs when climate change affects the very places, customs, and communities that football relies upon.

The implications are clearer than many realize. This perspective influenced one of the project’s intentional choices: Earth FC identifies itself as a football club rather than a conventional environmental initiative. For Lamb, this choice lends legitimacy to their mission.

Earth FC: ‘Defending Where Football Lives’

Environmental campaigns often operate outside the realm of football, observing and commenting on it from a distance. In contrast, clubs are part of the football community. They exist within its culture and communicate using the language shared by supporters.

Football is founded on identity, community, pride, rivalries, and collective experiences. Earth FC sought to immerse itself in this ecosystem rather than exist parallel to it.

This choice also circumvents a common challenge in climate communication: environmental messages can sometimes feel abstract or disconnected from daily life. Football offers a tangible connection.

Most supporters don’t perceive climate change through scientific reports or policy debates; they experience it firsthand—through flooded fields, postponed matches, intolerable temperatures, and impacted routines. These realities make the issue more relatable.

The effects are already observable. When asked about the most immediate impacts of climate change on football, Lamb highlighted changes that are increasingly impossible to ignore.

How Climate Change Impacts Football

People play football at a park in Brooklyn at dusk during the hottest day of the year so far on June 24, 2025, in New York City. Temperatures soared into the high 90s with a heat index exceeding 100 degrees as the first heat wave of the year swept across parts of the Midwest and East Coast. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Extreme heat is affecting kick-off times and training schedules. Clubs and governing bodies are implementing new player welfare measures. Flooding frequently makes grassroots pitches unplayable. In various regions, wildfires and poor air quality have led to cancellations.

Such disruptions are no longer rare; they are now a part of football’s landscape. Yet, Lamb argues that the most significant impacts are often overlooked. The true threat lies not just in the matches themselves, but in the routine of the game.

Football thrives on predictability—the same park every weekend, familiar teammates, supporters congregating at the same venue, and the repetition of rituals over time. These patterns forge community bonds. When extreme weather interrupts them, the fallout extends well beyond the match itself.

As Lamb explained: “When severe weather threatens to cancel games, it doesn’t only affect those 90 minutes; it puts immense pressure on our communities. For many, football is a crucial element of their social lives. For countless others—whether playing or watching in parks, pitches, or stadiums weekly—it serves as a vital lifeline, a means of escape. It’s what helps them cope in uncertain times.

“Flooding, extreme heat, and wildfires jeopardize the routines, relationships, and moments of connection that people rely on more than we often recognize. We need to unite to defend where football thrives.”

Connecting Climate Science with Everyday Experiences

Prince William, the Prince of Wales, arrives for the fifth annual Earthshot Prize Awards Night at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, where he showcased his football skills with local kids and former Brazilian footballer Cafu on November 3, 2025. (Photo by Ian Vogler – Pool/Getty Images)

The phrase ‘defend where football lives’ encapsulates the essence of Earth FC’s mission.

It shifts the dialogue from abstract environmental issues to something profoundly personal. Football is not confined to stadiums; it thrives in local parks, community fields, recreational areas, schools, and neighborhood venues. It’s present wherever people come together to share the sport.

These venues often stand at the forefront of climate change. Earth FC has garnered support from players, coaches, activists, and various public figures. Lamb articulates the importance of these voices, emphasizing that their significance extends beyond mere visibility.

Athletes bring authenticity because they share the same experiences as the people they address. Their narratives carry impact because they originate from within the game itself.

Fans may not immediately connect with environmental data, but they can relate to a player reminiscing about a once-flooded pitch or discussing extremes in training conditions that are now routine.

These narratives effectively bridge the divide between climate science and personal experience. Numerous athletes have already begun sharing them.

Some reflect on pitches that would regularly flood after heavy rains, while others discuss the increasingly severe temperatures faced during training and competition. Many have traveled extensive distances chasing opportunities, navigating environments altered by geography, infrastructure, and changing climatic conditions.

These accounts may not always be labeled as climate stories, but their relevance remains undiminished.

Earth FC and its Connection to Women’s Football

RECIFE, BRAZIL – JUNE 26: A United States fan observes the rain prior to the FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 group G match between the United States and Germany at Arena Pernambuco on June 26, 2014, in Recife, Brazil. (Photo by Martin Rose/Getty Images)

A particularly interesting facet of Earth FC’s approach is its link to women’s football.

Lamb emphasized that many areas within the women’s game exhibit a remarkable openness to engage with environmental and social issues. This willingness is not a result of indifference within men’s football; rather, it reflects variations in culture and history.

Women’s football has often evolved through grassroots networks and community structures, where discussions naturally extend beyond the pitch. Players often find themselves advocating not only for their own rights but also for the sport’s overall growth.

This context fosters a greater inclination to address broader community issues, with climate change integrating seamlessly into such dialogues.

Many female players narrate stories about facility access, changes in infrastructure, and the realities of grassroots football. These narratives illuminate the connection between environmental factors, opportunities, and participation.

Conversely, the men’s game is progressively engaging in sustainability initiatives, with clubs, leagues, and players investing heavily in environmental programs. However, larger institutional frameworks sometimes hinder the incorporation of these discussions into the daily landscape of football.

Earth FC refrains from framing this as a divide between men’s and women’s football. Instead, it showcases different narrative styles and various entry points into the same discussion.

‘Football as a Living Record of Environmental Change’

During my conversation with Lamb, one recurring theme emerged. Football often inadvertently records environmental change.

Players remember seasons defined by weather shifts. Fans recall local pitches that looked remarkably different two decades ago. Communities treasure memories of places that once hosted matches every weekend but now grapple with flooding or increasingly severe conditions.

Football captures these memories, serving as a living testament to environmental change. This perspective distinctly separates Earth FC from traditional climate campaigns.

The project does not launch with data to compel football to engage; it starts with the sport itself and acknowledges that the proof already resides within the game’s narratives.

Whether it’s the flooded pitch, the postponed game, the altered practice schedule, or the cherished childhood field that has deteriorated, each moment holds significance.

People don’t fight to protect statistics; they strive to preserve places and the memories and communities associated with them. Football provides a sanctuary for all three.

The pressing challenge now is to recognize what is at stake.

Climate change threatens not just infrastructure, but the very locales where football thrives, where friendships blossom, and where generations unite through a shared passion for the sport.

Earth FC’s call to action is simple: Pay attention. Listen to the stories emerging from football. Acknowledge the changes unfolding around us.

Defending football goes beyond preserving the sport. It entails safeguarding the places and people that provide the game with its meaning in the first place. Protect the pitches, parks, facilities, and communities that make football possible.

Earth FC: Defending Where…