Three quarters of people say helping grassroots clubs go green a good move for energy companies
Polling commissioned from YouGov shows broad support for E.ON and The FA's efforts to help grassroots clubs go green.
In 2024, in collaboration with The Football Association (The FA), we launched the Greener Game.
With E.ON’s significant financial investment and expertise in providing energy upgrades to homes, businesses, and other organisations, paired with The FA’s unbeatable knowledge of English grassroots football, this long-term partnership aims to bring cost-saving recommendations, facility upgrades, and self-service kits to grassroots clubs around the country, helping them lower both their bills and carbon emissions.
We don’t only view this as a means of advancing the UK’s energy transition in places that – unlike homes and industrial facilities – might otherwise go overlooked; we think that supporting sport through energy in this way could have wide-ranging impacts elsewhere. As part of recent polling we commissioned from YouGov, a nationally representative sample of 2,000 people was asked whether they agree that “helping local sports clubs to install sustainability measures so they can save on bills and focus their resources on the community is a good way for energy companies to give something back.” A significant majority, 76% said yes, and we agree. To us, supporting grassroots football in England isn’t just about economics, or even the environment. It’s about helping communities.
The powerful impact of sport on society
There is plenty of evidence to show that participation in sport has a positive impact on wider society. The briefing for a debate in the House of Lords last year noted that taking part improves both mental and physical health, reduces unhealthy behaviours like smoking, boosts self-esteem and social connectedness, and even improves performance in education, while a report from The FA – The Social, Health and Economic Value of Grassroots Football in England – suggests that grassroots football specifically contributes £11.8 billion a year to the UK economy, generates £3.2 billion in healthcare savings, and creates a further £935 million in social value.
To zoom in on a concrete example, Staveley Miners Welfare Football Club in Derbyshire has been serving its local community for more than 60 years and continues to bring sport and social contact to thousands of people today, including the 500 children who use the club’s 3G pitch each week. They also run a BTEC course offering post-16 education in sports coaching to young people in the local area.
By supporting Staveley Miners Welfare Football Club in upgrading its facilities with improvements such as a solar thermal system, electric heater and water controls, and insulation, we’ve helped them save money to be reinvested in these efforts, and the club’s leadership have been so pleased they are considering a further 32 solar panels and 4 EV car chargers to help meet their broader sustainability goals.
Supporting sport to make new energy work
England has over 18,000 football clubs with 120,000 teams and many more individual players, together representing a significant chance for an initiative like the Greener Game to have an impact not just on sport, but society as a whole. The resources we are currently investing in our partnership with The FA will provide opportunities to support many bastions of grassroots football just like Staveley Miners Welfare Football Club, and by extension potentially hundreds of communities across the country.
As with our other partnerships with E.ON Next Veloce Racing and Nottingham Forest, we look forward to a long and productive collaboration with The FA and the Greener Game, harnessing the power of sport to make new energy work.