2000 liters of oil a day for lawns?
Rettig: Football must reduce energy consumption
07/08/2022, 8:00 p.m
In German professional football, undersoil heating is mandatory so that you can play even in frosty temperatures. Such a heater swallows around 2000 liters of oil, says former DFL boss Andreas Rettig. One of many reasons why football must start critically examining its energy balance.
In view of the feared energy crisis in autumn and winter, former DFL Managing Director Andreas Rettig has called for professional football to make a significant contribution to saving energy. “Because if energy rationing is currently being considered and households have to use it more sparingly, if the Economics Minister appeals to save energy where possible, then professional football must also make its contribution,” said the long-time Bundesliga manager to the sports information service (SID ).
For him it is incomprehensible “when the lawn heating and the floodlights are running at full speed in winter”. According to Rettig, an oil-powered lawn heating consumes around 2000 liters of heating oil a day: “That’s about as much as a single-family house in a whole year. I think that you really have to rethink and be prepared here.”
In this context, the former managing director of the German Football League (DFL) also addresses the change from the game year to the calendar year. “Scandinavian countries are already doing this. If a World Cup in Qatar means that the whole of Europe can change the game plans, then I think that this could be done even more for this more important goal of climate protection,” Rettig mused. In this case, the winter business for the subscription sale of media partners should be considered subordinate: “In these times of energy shortage, there should be no ban on thinking – not even for professional football.”
Money should not only flow into short-term success
“I would like to see a paradigm shift in the distribution of performance bonuses and other incentives” in the direction of sustainability, says the Leverkusen native: “Why shouldn’t you give special rewards to the clubs that will achieve the largest share of the common good in the future. Or put a bonus on Greenest stocking of the sustainable or socially committed player. For me, those would be signals that point in the right direction.”
At the moment, the associations, both nationally and internationally, are primarily geared towards “rewarding sporting success, then of course the clubs will primarily invest in shorts”. Which also leads to attracting investors “in order to generate short-term sporting success, in order to then generate funds from the lavish media pots”.
The wrong way for Rettig. When he sees “that in Europe it is primarily the 20 clubs with the highest sales that are glorified, I have to smile about it. Sales alone are not a key figure that convinces me.” Greetings from Barcelona with its 1.35 billion euros in debt. Rettig: “Here I would wish much more for other incentives to be created, for example for sustainability issues.”
Rettig also sees a need for reform in the compensation system for managers: “For me, it is no longer up-to-date to only bonus a place in the table or a title, but also to meet certain criteria there.”