04. The Syllabus: F. Sport and Sustainability Leadership
Fields Of Change: A Sustainability Handbook
F. SPORT AND SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSHIP
Clubs and Teams Clubs can also help to show social leadership as they are incredibly influential in their local communities and beyond. They can make statements or have themed matchdays, or implement inclusive measures in their everyday operations to set an example. An example is Lewes FC, a semi-professional football club in the south of England. The club has enacted several progressive policies, such as: • ‘Equality FC’: in 2017, they became the first professional or semi-professional club in the world to start treating its women footballers the same as its men – the same playing budgets, same pitch, same training facilities. • Inclusive drink and food options - for different dietary requirements, and non-alcoholic options. • Breastfeeding room. • Fan ownership - the club is owned by the community, for the community. • LGBTQIA+ fundraisers. • ‘Call Him Out’ campaigns aimed at kicking sexism and misogyny out of society.
Social Leadership in Sport
• In 2022, Jake Daniels became the UK's first male professional footballer to come out publicly as gay since Justin Fashanu in 1990. • Various protests were organised by players and teams to highlight human rights issues in the lead-up to the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar. • Innes FitzGerald , a promising young long-distance runner, gained publicity by turning down the opportunity to compete in the World Cross Country Championships in Australia, explaining that she felt she could not justify flying for climate reasons. • African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave a ‘Black Power’ salute on the Olympic podium in the 1968 games to highlight racial injustice. • England and Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford led a campaign for free school meals for school children in the UK in 2020, directly leading to a change in policy by the UK government. • Athletics Kenya, concerned about the risk climate change poses to the country and its sport, has begun educating its top athletes – some of the nation’s most visible people – to speak out about climate change.
Throughout history, sport has been a lightning rod for societal issues and moments of change. Athletes, governing bodies, teams, and events have been used to draw attention to important issues from natural disasters to wars and violence. Sport is the most powerful cultural phenomenon on the planet and so has the power to lead and influence on social issues. Whether it is an Olympian or a local part-time coach, sporting figures can shape hearts and minds like no-one else. Athletes Athletes are potentially the most powerful drivers of social change - top sports people are among the most well-known and well-liked people on the planet. Consider some of these recent examples: • NFL star Colin Kaepernick first began kneeling during the USA national anthem to protest against racial injustice and police brutality in 2016, risking his career but beginning a movement that would ignite conversations across the country, including drawing comment from President Trump in 2017.
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