Written by: Frida Austmo Wågan
From July 12th to 16th, doctoral candidate Frida Wågan traveled to Berlin to participate in the launch of a collaboration between the German Ministry of Environment, Football for Forest (F4F), and We Play Green (WPG), in addition to collecting data for her doctoral project on climate and environmental issues within international football.
The first day started out with observing some collaborative meetings WPG held with international football organizations regarding upcoming partnerships. Several intriguing perspectives and ideas were discussed, although much of this remains confidential for now. As the meeting took place in the old clubhouse at the Olympia Stadium, we also had a tour and a brief history lesson about the construction of the stadium for the 1936 Olympics, where Hitler and Nazi Germany aimed to showcase the physical superiority of the Aryan race. A very captivating morning in many ways!
On the second day of the trip, an event took place at ‘Stadion An der Alten Försterei’ to launch the collaboration between the Ministry of Environment, F4F, and WPG. The collaboration aims to promote the importance of nature conservation and reforestation of the rainforests through using football as a platform to convey this message, as several football clubs and players have a voice that reaches many. In addition to launching the collaboration, an app was introduced where individuals and companies can support a team, and for every goal the team scores, a certain amount of money is donated to forest planting projects in vulnerable rainforest areas. For instance, money is donated for each goal scored in connection with the 2023 World Cup in Australia/New Zealand as a ‘kick-off’ for the project.
The event brought together many fascinating individuals from various sectors – including politics, academia, and international football. Numerous organizations working on climate and environmental issues within sports were present, and based on the dialogues that followed speeches and the official program, there is a significant drive and motivation to work on sustainability within international football.
The day following the event was dedicated to interviews with several athletes associated with WPG about how they choose to use their voices to advocate various climate and environmental issues both within and outside the realm of international football, as part of the data collection for Frida’s doctoral thesis. Undoubtedly, there are many intriguing stories and forms of engagement to highlight, and many of the players are making substantial efforts in this domain.
The final hours of the trip were spent on a more or less obligatory visit to museums in Europe’s museum capital. With over 170 museums in Berlin, it wasn’t easy to decide which one to visit, but we ended up going to the Academy of Arts and the exhibition ‘Macht, Raum, Gewalt’ (Power, Space, Violence), which explored how architecture and urban development were used as active tools for segregation and oppression in the lead-up to World War II.
In summary, these were three content-rich days in a highly fascinating city, and I am looking forward to following both the athletes’ engagement and several of the collaborative projects further.
