Swiss standards panel slaps down FIFA for labelling Qatar World Cup as carbon neutral
BERN: The Swiss advertising authority has decided that FIFA is guilty of misleading consumers by declaring that the World Cup in Qatar was “carbon neutral”. The authority took a decision on June 6.
The advertising authority states FIFA should “refrain in future from making the contested allegations, unless it can provide, at the time of communication, full proof of the calculation, using generally accepted methods, of all CO2 emissions caused by the tournament, and proof that these CO2 emissions have been fully offset”.
The authority concludes that FIFA was in breach of the Swiss Federal Law on Unfair Competition, which could constitute a criminal offence in some jurisdictions.
Five organisations submitted a complaint with their respective advertising authorities in November 2022: Fossil Free Football and Reclame Fossielvrij in the Netherlands, New Weather Institute in the United Kingdom, Alliance Climatique in Switzerland, Notre Affaire à tous in France and Carbon Market Watch in Belgium.
The national advertising authorities had all complaint to the Swiss authorities that FIFA’s claim that the World Cup in Qatar was climate neutral had been misleading.
This was based on a report by Carbon Market Watch, which showed how FIFA grossly underestimated the esmissions of the World Cup, a big part of which are the emissions as a result of constructing the new stadiums. Furthermore, FIFA did not include the 500 daily shuttle flights between Dubai, Riyadh, Kuwait and Doha in its calculation.
CO2 compensation, which should neutralize all emissions, does not work in any case. The way FIFA claimed to compensate emissions did not even fulfill minimal international standards. These claims mislead fans, from those that bought tickets to the billions of people watching the World Cup. In the complaint we also show how famous ex football players played a role in the misleading campaign by the World Cup organisers.
The Swiss authority stated that “FIFA gave the false and misleading impression that the World Cup in Qatar had achieved carbon neutrality before and during the tournament”.
It added that FIFA had not provided “credible evidence of how all CO2 emissions generated by the tournament could be offset in accordance with Swiss standards”. FIFA is requested to “refrain in the future from claiming that the World Cup in 2022 in Qatar was climate- and CO2-neutral.”
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