Football and the climate crisis: does the game really want to tackle it?
About three years ago, in the thick of a League Two promotion campaign, Michael Doughty began to notice something. An unusually wet winter had flooded Swindon Town’s training pitches, forcing them to trek up and down the country in search of a usable facility. The postponements were piling up. “It would be unseasonably warm, then super-cold, which made performance more difficult,” he remembers. “The effect was really tangible. And I couldn’t understand why there wasn’t a discussion.”
For Doughty it was a realisation that would set off an unusual chain of events. After retiring from the game he set up a sustainable sportswear brand, but soon realised that he wanted to work in football again. And so, aged just 30, he has returned to his old club, not as a coach or a scout or an ambassador, but as their chief sustainability officer: the first former player to take such a position at an English league club.
There are big plans. Swindon are about to secure the purchase of the County Ground from the local council for the first time, allowing them to redevelop the ground with an environmental focus. A new roof on the Stratton Bank stand will be fitted with solar panels, and there will be electric charging points in the car park. But first, there are small plans: the job of convincing supporters and sponsors that a 144-year-old football club can and must play a role in the future of the planet.
This is where Doughty comes in. He’s at pains to stress that he’s not a scientist or a climate expert. But he is a club legend, part of their League Two title-winning side of 2020, and when you’re trying to change minds that counts for something. “I can relate to the fans,” he says. “I didn’t retire 50 years ago. I was part of good times