Football for Sustainability Summit 2024

More Collaboration in Sports for a Sustainable Future

Major sporting events, like the UEFA EURO 2024™️, have the potential to make a positive impact far beyond regional borders and the duration of the competition. 

For this reason, high-profile decision-makers and opinion leaders from sport and sustainability will meet in Berlin for the Football for Sustainability Summit as part of the tournament. 

The event aims to bring together globally relevant football stakeholders and encourage them to work more collaboratively and intensively towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals.  

The Football for Sustainability Summit will be held on the 11th and 12th of July 2024 with around 300 invited participating experts from the fields of football, politics, business, civil society and science.  

The event is designed and organised by Common Goal, connecting people during an important moment to make sure climate is a priority in football and beyond. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH will join in organising the multicultural and cross-sector event.  

The Summit will focus on the importance of collaboration to achieve lasting progress for a fairer world, reflected in Common Goal’s holistic and sustainable work.  

“This is a unique collaborative event that sees Common Goal bring together so many diverse stakeholders with a shared ambition to use the power of football for the good of people and the planet,” said Jürgen Griesbeck, CEO at Common Goal.   

“The diversity and influence of the Summit attendees including governmental decision-makers, football industry leaders, athletes, football community organisations, sustainability experts and scientists, is both a testament to the scale of the challenge the world is facing, and also the need for urgent action to be taken in the spirit of radical collaboration if we want to see football maximising its contribution," he added.  

The Football for Sustainability Summit is hosted by three federal ministries: the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Home Affairs, as well as the the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection.  

The Summit will also be supported by UEFA and the Deutsche Fußball-Bund (DFB). 

Federal Minister Nancy Faeser said: "Sport, and football in particular (as the largest sport in the world), has enormous potential to contribute to a fairer and more environmentally friendly world.  

“Not only because of the many positive aspects it brings as a team sport but even more because of its communicative power that reaches so many people around the world.”  

“This potential is far from being fully utilised. As the challenges we face as a global society cannot be solved individually, we are using the UEFA EURO 2024 in Germany to create valuable space for this topic, cooperation and the coordination of concrete next steps,” she added.

In addition to specific agreements on action and alliances, the summit will end with a summit statement which should be signed by as many participants as possible and serve as a framework for further cooperation.  

A list of participating organisations and further information on the event is available at https://www.football-for-sustainability.org.