Keeping our footyprint local

Football is a fantastic game. It can, and does, transport us from everyday cares. Or, for Man Utd and Chelsea fans, it carts 42,000 of them halfway across the globe to Moscow. For many, it’ll be a memory for a lifetime.

Now then. At a time when fuel prices are reaching an all-time high, and concerns over the damage we may be doing to the environment are ever-growing, I must ask why this game must be played thousands of miles distant from the fans, management and players.

I know that the Champions League is internationally staged. But as soon as it became clear that its final would involve two English teams, couldn’t the venue have been switched, citing the saving of untold tonnes of pollutants involved in needlessly transporting so many football-lovers so far?

Aside from the eco-benefits, it would help the game. Wembley has, at least, a playable pitch, where Moscow’s is, by some accounts, as bumpy as a cow-field. The Football Association has its own eco-site – carbonfootyprint.com – where it trumpets how clubs and fans are working to diminish the sport’s effect on the environment. So far, it has saved the equivalent 23,000 tonnes of polluting emissions.

But all that good work is largely undone by the squadrons of jets carrying fans to tonight’s game. Of course, the FA doesn’t call the shots for the Champions League. UEFA does. But the FA has worldwide influence, and what it pushes at home, it should promote keenly overseas, too.

Until we see a real shift in attitudes and a consistent approach to managing pollution levels, it’s incredibly hard to see drivers caned through high fuel taxes and stiff road tax dues.

Enjoy the game tonight. I’d love to see Man Utd win, but my money’s on Chelsea!