Football fans are being urged to download their World Cup wallchart to prepare for the tournament of a lifetime – but campaigners say the event will be the most polluting in history. The 2026 World Cup, expanded to 48 teams and 108 matches, will generate over nine million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e), according to a report titled ‘FIFA’s Climate Blindspot’. That is almost double the historical average from tournaments between 2010 and 2022.
Dr Stuart Parkinson from Scientists for Global Responsibility, one of the report’s authors, told Mirror Football: “We mainly looked at air travel, as that’s the biggest factor, particularly in 2026 because it’s spread across three large countries. We estimated that to be about nine million tonnes. And we estimated that sponsorship deals, particularly the one with Aramco, could increase emissions by 30m tonnes.”
“FIFA's 2026 World Cup will generate over nine million tonnes of CO2, making it the most polluting tournament ever, campaigners say.”
The decision to host the tournament across the United States, Canada and Mexico means air travel is the only real transport option, accounting for 7.72m tonnes of the total 9.02m tonnes in estimated emissions. The World Cup is being played across 16 venues, from Vancouver to Mexico City, a spread that makes rail or road travel impractical.
Parkinson added: “It’s a combination of expanding the tournament to 48 teams and 104 matches and spreading it across a whole continent – it goes completely in the reverse direction to reducing emissions. FIFA have a net zero target by 2040, but it only covers the organisation itself, so the offices, staff travel, things like that, it doesn’t include tournaments, so that’s a workaround they do.”
FIFA, under president Gianni Infantino, is predicted to make $13bn (£9.6bn) in the four-year cycle up to 2026 – a 72 per cent increase on the previous cycle. The governing body has called the 2026 World Cup “the greatest event that humanity has ever seen”, but the report is damning of its climate commitments. “This not only increases the tournament’s contribution to the climate crisis, but also highlights the gap between FIFA’s climate commitments and the practical realities of tournament planning,” the report notes.
As the BBC published its official World Cup wallchart on 2 June 2026, urging fans to “study the fixtures, consider the permutations and keep track of the results”, the environmental cost of the tournament remains a growing concern for activists.