Swiss Advertising Regulatory Body Rebukes FIFA For Misleadingly Branding Qatar World Cup As Carbon Neutral
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Loading... - nathan lucy
- 09 Jun 2023
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The Swiss regulatory body responsible for advertising has ruled that FIFA has deceived consumers by declaring the Qatar World Cup as "carbon neutral". The decision was made on June 6 by the advertising authority.
According to the authority, FIFA should avoid making such claims in the future unless it can provide comprehensive evidence, using widely accepted methodologies, to calculate all CO2 emissions produced by the tournament. Additionally, FIFA must prove that these emissions have been fully offset.
The authority concludes that FIFA has violated the Swiss Federal Law on Unfair Competition, which may constitute a criminal offense in certain jurisdictions.
In November 2022, five organizations—Fossil Free Football and Reclame Fossielvrij from the Netherlands, New Weather Institute from the United Kingdom, Alliance Climatique from Switzerland, Notre Affaire à tous from France, and Carbon Market Watch from Belgium—filed complaints with their respective advertising authorities. These organizations claimed that FIFA's assertion of the Qatar World Cup being climate neutral was misleading.
Their complaint was based on a report by Carbon Market Watch, which demonstrated how FIFA significantly underestimated the tournament's emissions, particularly those arising from the construction of new stadiums. Additionally, FIFA failed to include the emissions from the 500 daily shuttle flights between Dubai, Riyadh, Kuwait, and Doha in their calculations.
Even if CO2 compensation were implemented to offset all emissions, it would still be ineffective. FIFA's proposed method of compensating emissions did not meet even the minimum international standards. These claims misled not only the fans, including ticket buyers, but also the billions of people worldwide who watched the World Cup. The complaint also highlighted the involvement of well-known former football players in the misleading campaign orchestrated by the World Cup organizers.
The Swiss authority declared that "FIFA created a false and misleading impression that the Qatar World Cup had achieved carbon neutrality both before and during the tournament." It further noted that FIFA had not presented credible evidence of how all CO2 emissions generated by the tournament could be offset in compliance with Swiss standards. FIFA has been urged to refrain from making claims in the future that the 2022 World Cup in Qatar was climate and CO2 neutral.
