Engaging football fans with climate change – case study

Climate Outreach partnered with the UK charity Pledgeball to create a toolkit for football supporters' associations, focusing on authentic messaging and the use of 'trusted messengers' to encourage low-carbon lifestyle pledges. The approach emphasizes shifting from climate paralysis to collective efficacy by leveraging fan identity and community. Early findings suggest that engagement is more successful when campaigns have a recognizable face and that fans' receptiveness to climate messaging may correlate with their team's on-pitch performance.

• Pledgeball uses a 'league table' of collective low-carbon lifestyle pledges to move fans from a sense of climate paralysis to a feeling of efficacy, where individual actions contribute to systemic change.
• To ensure authenticity, Climate Outreach recommended that climate messaging avoid technical jargon and remote narratives like 'saving the planet,' instead focusing on positive, fan-led stories and the specific heritage and identity of individual clubs.
• The engagement strategy emphasizes the use of 'trusted messengers' by disseminating toolkits through supporters' associations rather than directly from Pledgeball, allowing fans to speak authentically to their own communities.
• Post-partnership observations indicate that engagement is more effective when there is a recognizable 'face' behind a campaign and that prize draws are the most successful method for attracting initial interest during a cost of living crisis.
• Pledgeball identified a potential correlation between a football team's success on the pitch and the fans' receptiveness to climate messaging.

APA

Webster, R. (2022). Engaging football fans with climate change – case study. Climate Outreach. https://climateoutreach.org/engaging-football-fans-case-study/

Chicago

Webster, Robin. Engaging football fans with climate change – case study. Climate Outreach, 2022. https://climateoutreach.org/engaging-football-fans-case-study/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Webster |first1=Robin |title=Engaging football fans with climate change – case study |publisher=Climate Outreach |date=25 July 2022 |url=https://climateoutreach.org/engaging-football-fans-case-study/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{webster2022engaging, author = {Webster, Robin}, title = {{Engaging football fans with climate change – case study}}, institution = {Climate Outreach}, year = {2022}, month = jul, url = {https://climateoutreach.org/engaging-football-fans-case-study/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }