Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City among greenest Champions League clubs
Ranking Champions League teams is usually straightforward enough. Goals, points, coefficients, trophies. Lovely measurable things.
Sustainability is messier.
One club reports all three emissions scopes; another tells you how many solar panels it owns. One includes supporter travel; another doesn’t. A shiny new stadium might use less energy but required enormous quantities of carbon-intensive materials to build. Buying renewable electricity isn’t the same as generating it.
Find out how you can help you team rise up the Pledgeball League table
So this isn’t a ranking of which Champions League club emits the least carbon. The public data simply aren’t comparable enough to make that judgement.
Instead, these are the clubs entering the 2026/27 Champions League with some of the strongest publicly evidenced environmental programmes, judged on reporting, measurable reductions, targets, energy, transport, waste and infrastructure.
And the leaders are wearing green.
1) Real Betis
Sometimes football makes these things too easy.
Betis’ Forever Green project has grown into one of European football’s most extensive club-led environmental programmes since its launch in 2020. More importantly, there are numbers behind the marketing.
The club says its Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse-gas emissions have fallen by 56.39% compared with its 2018-19 baseline, a reduction of almost 400 tonnes of CO2e. Forever Green has also been used for supporter-facing initiatives including recycling campaigns, bicycle parking and incentives for more sustainable transport.
Betis do not necessarily have the smallest carbon footprint in this competition. We cannot know that from the available data. What they have done particularly well is make sustainability part of the club’s public identity while attaching measurable action.
2) Liverpool
The Red Way gives Liverpool something many clubs still lack: numbers against which they can be judged.
Their latest report records a 13% reduction in overall carbon emissions against a 2019-20 baseline and says 96% of operations are powered by clean energy. More than 310,000 single-use items have been avoided at Anfield through reusable cups and food containers.
Liverpool have also become the first football club to achieve the Food Made Good Standard across their entire food-and-beverage operation.
There is an awkward bit. The club’s own report acknowledges domestic team flights and says it invests in sustainable aviation fuel against their impact. That at least illustrates one benefit of detailed reporting: it makes the uncomfortable stuff visible too.
3) Manchester City
Whatever else you may wish to argue about Manchester City, their sustainability reporting gives you plenty to work with.
City’s latest figures record a 25% annual reduction in CO2 emissions, while Scope 1 and 2 operations are described as carbon neutral. Phase one of the club’s solar programme at the City Football Academy is generating more than 1MW of renewable energy, while water consumption has fallen by more than 30million litres.
Waste is another area in which the detail matters. In 2024-25, 71% of operational waste was recycled and the remaining 29% recovered, meaning nothing went to landfill.
City have also expanded their matchday bus network to 83 stops, carrying an average of 1,580 supporters per match. The club measures Scopes 1, 2 and 3 and retains a target of becoming net carbon zero by 2030.
Did you know, 100,000 tonnes of sportswear ends up in landfill every year in the UK alone?
4) Arsenal
Arsenal strengthened their case considerably last season by becoming the first football club to announce fully verified Science Based Targets.
Those targets commit Arsenal to reducing direct emissions by 42% by 2030 and 90% by 2040, aligning the club’s reduction pathway with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
There are smaller practical measures too. Arsenal trialled a 20% rail discount for supporters travelling to Liverpool and have introduced additional EV chargers, water dispensers and recycling facilities across club sites.
Targets are not reductions, of course. Arsenal will ultimately have to demonstrate that the numbers are moving in the right direction. But independently verified targets provide rather more accountability than a nice webpage promising to be greener.
5) Villarreal
A quietly impressive contender. Villarreal have calculated their carbon footprint, reporting 848.96 tonnes of CO2 for 2023. That number should not be compared directly with another club’s total because reporting boundaries can differ, but publishing it is a useful starting point.
The Estadio de la Ceramica has 1,060 photovoltaic panels producing 435kWp. Villarreal say the installation has reduced CO2 emissions by 122 tonnes and delivered 642.7MWh of energy savings.
There are solar panels at the club’s training facilities too, alongside rainwater collection, low-consumption LED lighting and technology designed to reduce irrigation requirements. The stadium’s position in the centre of Villarreal also makes walking a realistic matchday option for plenty of supporters.
6) Atletico Madrid
The Metropolitano gives Atletico a strong claim to a place among the leaders.
The stadium has received BREEAM In-Use certification, rated ‘Very Good’ for the building and facilities and ‘Excellent’ for its management. Atletico use 100 per cent LED stadium lighting, which the club says cuts electricity consumption by 30%, while rainwater is collected for pitch irrigation and cleaning.
What keeps Atletico below the clubs above is not necessarily poorer environmental performance; it is the lack of equally comprehensive, publicly comparable emissions data demonstrating what all of those measures add up to.
Watch Route ’26: Losing Sight of Goal, by following Pledgeball on Instagram and YouTube