Regenerating the pitch: environmental discourses in football

Climate crisis, environmental problems, and their appropriate responses are contested topics in international football. In this study, I analyse the construction of these issues and the privileging of certain responses through a critical discourse analysis of media content on environmental problems from FIFA, UEFA and We Play Green's (WPG) websites posted in 2022 (N = 66). I then examine how power is expressed within these discourses, and how this influence the renegotiation of the dominant discourse. In addition to a dominant discourse offered by FIFA and UEFA emphasizing how economic development is compatible with, and needed to achieve environmental sustainability, I identified a counter-discourse offered by WPG, promoting radical changes in politics and consumer practices. The various constructions of environmental problems and appropriate responses found in the two discourses demonstrate the need for democratic discussions when conceptualizing these issues, to make responses less dependent on strategic and economic interests.