Football, Oil and Public Health: A Relationship We Can No Longer Ignore

This article is not about football. It is about how fossil fuels shape our daily lives, our cities, our climate, and ultimately, our health. Football is simply the most visible mirror of a much broader phenomenon.

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[This post was jointly written by Manolis Kogevinas, Emeritus Professor at ISGlobal, an Neil Pearce, Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. It is based on their academic paper "Football, fossil fuels, and public health in the era of climate crisis", published in Environmental Epidemiology.]

In December 2022, millions of people watched Lionel Messi lift the World Cup wrapped in a bisht (a traditional garment) placed on him by the Emir of Qatar. The image became a global symbol, not only for its sporting value, but because it revealed something deeper: the growing fusion between the planet's most popular sport and the economic interests of major fossil fuel producers.

In the 2026 World Cup, one of the sponsors was Aramco, Saudi Arabia's state oil company, and furthermore, the 2034 World Cup will take place precisely in Saudi Arabia.

But this article is not about football. It is about how fossil fuels shape our daily lives, our cities, our climate, and ultimately, our health. Football is simply the most visible mirror of a much broader phenomenon: the ability of certain industries to influence culture and public perception through platforms of massive reach.

A link that goes far beyond sports

For decades, major oil companies and states whose wealth depends on oil and gas have invested billions in projects with global visibility. Some estimates place this annual investment at around 6 billion dollars. Sport, and especially football, is one of the most effective vehicles for this. It is no coincidence that some of Europe's most successful clubs are controlled by sovereign wealth funds from oil-producing countries, nor that state airlines or energy companies appear on jerseys, stadiums, and broadcasts. The result is a constant presence, almost invisible due to its normality, of industries responsible for a substantial share of global emissions.

It is no coincidence that some of Europe's most successful clubs are controlled by sovereign wealth funds from oil-producing countries, nor that state airlines or energy companies appear on jerseys, stadiums, and broadcasts. The result is a constant presence, almost invisible due to its normality, of industries responsible for a substantial share of global emissions.

Even the most admired managers in contemporary football, Pep Guardiola, until recently at Manchester City, and Luis Enrique at Paris Saint-Germain, work on sports projects whose excellence is sustained by capital originating from fossil fuel-based economies, through the sovereign wealth funds of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, respectively. This is not a criticism of them, but an observation: sporting talent today coexists with financial structures that have profound implications for the climate and public health.

But reducing this strategy to a matter of image would be naive. What is at stake is the ability of these industries to maintain their social legitimacy at a time when science is unequivocal: the burning of fossil fuels is the primary driver of climate change, and climate change is already the single greatest threat to public health in the 21st century.

Public health in the era of extreme climate

Climate change is not an abstract phenomenon. Its effects on health are documented and intensify every year:

• More frequent and deadly heatwaves.
• Air pollution causing millions of premature deaths.
• Extreme events—floods, fires, droughts—that disrupt ecosystems and displace populations.
• Infectious diseases expanding into new regions.

These risks are documented in multiple reports, such as the Lancet Countdown, one of the most comprehensive evaluations on climate and health, in which ISGlobal researchers actively participate.

While the impacts of climate change increase, the industries responsible for the majority of emissions continue to find privileged spaces to project an image of modernity, dynamism, and progress.

And yet, as the impacts increase, the industries responsible for the majority of emissions continue to find privileged spaces to project an image of modernity, dynamism, and progress.

The power of normalization

This is where the link to sports, and to other cultural spheres, becomes relevant. Advertising and sponsorship do not just sell products: they shape mindsets. Associating fossil fuels with success, excitement, or sporting excellence helps maintain the idea that these industries are a natural and inevitable part of our lives.

Sportswashing is not just an ethical issue. It is a commercial determinant of health, because it indirectly influences health risks by delaying or weakening environmental protection policies.

This phenomenon has a name: sportswashing, a form of reputational laundering that uses sports to soften the public perception of activities with negative environmental impacts. But sportswashing is not just an ethical issue. It is a commercial determinant of health, because it indirectly influences health risks by delaying or weakening environmental protection policies.

An uncomfortable parallel: tobacco

History offers a clear precedent. For decades, the tobacco industry used sports to associate its products with vitality and success. The result was a significant delay in the adoption of tobacco control policies.

Today, no one would accept a cigarette brand sponsoring a major club's jersey. Yet, we continue to accept, and even celebrate, industries responsible for a climate crisis with massive health consequences occupying that very space.

Is this dependency inevitable?

A widespread idea is that sports, and by extension other cultural activities, need this type of funding to survive. But this narrative ignores something fundamental: the economic system of sports has been built on a spiral of rising expenditure, where additional revenues do not stabilize the model, but rather feed permanent inflation in salaries, transfers, and operational costs.

In other words: it is not that sports need fossil fuels; it is that the current sports model needs a constant flow of capital, wherever it comes from.

A moment for collective responsibility

The debate over the role of fossil fuels in sports is not a debate about fandom. It is not about stopping watching matches or giving up the thrill generated by the game. It is about recognizing that culture is also part of the system that determines our health.

It is not about stopping watching matches or giving up the thrill generated by the game. It is about recognizing that culture is also part of the system that determines our health.

Scientific societies have already proven that they can lead profound ethical changes, as occurred with tobacco. Today, the challenge is greater and more urgent. The question is not whether sports should divest from fossil fuels, but when and how.

Because, just as in the 20th century it became unacceptable for sports to serve as a platform to promote products that killed, in the 21st century it should be unacceptable to us that it contributes to normalizing the industry that is destabilizing the planet's climate.