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Lionel Messi is arguably the greatest footballer of all-time. At the beginning of March, Argentina’s 2022 FIFA World Cup hero became the highest profile athlete to promote environmental and climate action when he launched a partnership with environmental organization Join The Planet and sustainable eyewear brand Karün. The triumvirate teamed up to create a line of collectible sculptures of a Messi cleat made out of recycled materials. Ten percent of cleat sales will help fund the conservation and regeneration of his country’s environmentally degraded Paraná River.
At the same time, the Barcelona legend and current Inter Miami star can also be credibly charged with being a Green-Sportswasher (GSW) thanks to his highly compensated role as an ambassador for the Saudi government.
Forbes contributor Vitas Carosella — he covers the soccer beat, focusing on culture, sustainability and politics — wrote a Messi-Join The Planet-Karün collaboration piece that touched on the GSW issue.
And this was not his first Forbes piece on Saudi Green-Sportswashing. In fact, just two weeks earlier, Forbes ran a hard-hitting Carosella column about the new partnership between Concacaf, soccer’s governing body for North and Central America as well as the Caribbean, and the Kingdom’s oil giant, Aramco.
GSB shines a light on both of Carosella’s stories, offering our take in the process.
While channel surfing a couple weeks ago, I unexpectedly came upon Inter Miami CF playing host to MLS rival Nashville SC in a Round of 16 match in the Concacaf Champions Cup. While MLS matches do not usually grab my attention, this one did because it featured the incomparable Lionel Messi weaving his magic for the home side. As the diminutive Argentine in the number 10 jersey zigged and zagged through the Nashville defense to set up Miami’s opening goal, he passed a large Saudi Aramco field-level sign. You could not miss it.
While most fans likely marveled at the beauty of yet another Messi playmaking masterpiece; my mind immediately went to Vitas Carosella, the writer who brings soccer and sustainability coverage to an audience — Forbes readers — that is more often interested in metrics like GDP and ROI, rather than expected goals. I wondered if Carosella was watching when Messi flashed by the Aramco sign and, if so, what he thought at that moment.
You see, two weeks earlier I had read Carosella’s, ‘Leo Messi Captains Fight Against Climate Change with Join The Planet’, about how Messi and partners are working to clean up the environmentally challenged Paraná River which flows by his hometown of Rosario, while at the same time, he represents the Green-Sportswashing Saudi government by promoting tourism to the Kingdom. And two weeks before that, I devoured his piece on yet another big Saudi GSW, ‘Despite Climate Crisis, Concacaf Signs Partnership with Saudi Arabia‘,
Here are the key takeaways from both stories:
MESSI CAPTAINS FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE WITH JOIN THE PLANET
- The collectible sculpture of Messi’s renowned soccer cleat is made from recycled materials that are collected from the Patagonia region of southern Argentina and Chile, Indonesia, China, Thailand, India and Ghana.
- The collectible cleat is available for purchase for $US299; 10 percent of each sale will go towards conservation and regeneration of the Paraná River which runs along Messi’s home city of Rosario.
- Thomas Kimber, Director of Join the Planet Foundation and Founder & CEO of Karün, offered that as Messi reaches the later stages of his career, he is beginning to look at his legacy beyond sports.
- Messi said upon the announcement of the partnership, “with effort and a sense of community, we can take care of the planet.”
- Join the Planet’s mission is to facilitate relationships between key public figures and communities “to generate a positive impact on the planet.”
- Karün, a B Corp Certified, Patagonia-based company focused on transitioning towards a regenerative economy, builds sunglasses from recycled and repurposed materials using a regenerative supply chain model. It was key in helping collect the materials to build the Messi soccer cleat sculpture.
- Fundación Rosario (Rosario Foundation) is in charge of managing the local element of the Messi/Join the Planet/Karün campaign to regenerate the Paraná river.
- The Paraná — which is often compared to the Mississippi and is the longest river in South America after the Amazon — has been beset by major deforestation along its islands and riverbanks. This destroys local biodiversity, ruins animal habitats, while eliminating vital top soil nutrients and drying out wetlands, decreasing their capacity to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
- On Messi and Green-Sportswashing, Carosella wrote that “naysayers will rightly point out that Messi, like most of the aforementioned stars, lives an unsustainable lifestyle that involves many private flights and an ambassadorship for a petrostate which perpetuates the climate crisis.”
You can read the full story by clicking HERE.
The Lionel Messi collectible cleat from Join The Planet and Karün (Photo credit: Join The Planet)
GSB’s Take: Having Lionel Messi join the fight for environmental and climate justice through the sale of collectible cleats is a major first step for the most popular active athlete on the planet. Kudos go to Messi, Join The Planet, and Karün for launching this innovative program. I hope that this program gets media attention from major global soccer media outlets like Sky Sports, Fox Sports, and DAZN.
Also, to demonstrate that he is truly committed to climate action, that this is not just a one-off, and to eliminate the Sports-Greenwash issue, I suggest that Messi:
1) Make a public statement that goes beyond the generic ‘take care of the planet’ and specifically mentions the climate crisis and opportunity. Something like, ‘we are behind in the climate fight, and we are approaching stoppage time. However, we have the time, we have the tools, and now we have the team to make the #ClimateComeback. Vamonos!’
2) Work with Join The Planet, Karün, and any other partners that fit the bill on a massive climate action program that can engage millions if not billions of fans in the run up to the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Canada, Mexico, and the USA. Dear readers, your ideas here are welcome. Please send them along to lew@greensportsblog.com
3) Back out of his deal with Saudi Arabia. Otherwise, his credibility will rightly be called into question every time he takes a pro-climate, pro-environmental action.
4) Get rid of the private jets. Rory McIlroy can travel on commercial flights, why not you, Leo?
Finally, I hope that the Messi collectible cleats-for-the-planet program inspires other ‘best of the best’ athletes to commit to engaging their fans with compelling environmental and climate initiatives. How about it, LeBron James and Coco Gauff? And Shohei Ohtani, you could make the baseball world forget about that pesky gambling issue with your interpreter by becoming a #ClimateComeback leader. Whaddya say?
And in an email exchange Vitas Carosella added that Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, the celebrity/actor owners of Wrexham FC, the wildly popular 4th tier English football club, thanks to the documentary series on FX, should lend their voice and cool factor to the cause. Love that!
DESPITE CLIMATE CRISIS, CONCACAF SIGNS PARTNERSHIP WITH SAUDI ARAMCO
- Concacaf, the regional soccer governing body for North America, Central America and the Caribbean has signed a multi-year partnership agreement to make Saudi oil giant Aramco its official energy sponsor.
- The deal is emblematic of the wider acceptance of big polluters (and other industries that continue to perpetuate the climate crisis) by the soccer industry.
- The irony is that by signing the agreement, Concacaf is helping perpetuate a problem that threatens the future of its athletes, and its competitions.
- For its part, Aramco has no intention of curtailing its investment in the fossil fuel industry. According to its latest annual report, the oil giant says it plans “to maintain its position as the world’s largest crude oil company by production volume.”
- The company’s Green-Sportswashing is not limited to soccer; it also sponsors Formula 1 Esports, the Houston half marathon, the Formula 1 team Aston Martin Racing, the International Cricket Committee (ICC) and as of November of last year, FIFA.
- Dr. Madeleine ‘Maddy’ Orr, Professor of Sports Ecology at the University of Toronto and Founder of The Sport Ecology Group, opined that “it’s becoming more clear at this point that only a fossil fuel advertising ban from governments, and multiple governments in this case, will stop these types of deals from being so attractive to sport organizations like CONCACAF.”
- On the impacts of sports organizations like Concacaf continuing to partner fossil fuel companies like Aramco, Carosella concluded that “climate-related issues will only continue to worsen. The resulting effect on air quality, the rise in extreme heat or ocean temperatures, and increased frequency of storms will drastically impact the ability for sports to be played.”
You can read the full story by clicking HERE.
GSB’s Take: This is a very important story from Vitas Carosella. That Concacaf has not taken a public position on climate change is indefensible, especially since the region has been buffeted by climate impacts over the past two decades and that promises to get even worse. The soccer media needs to ask Concacaf leaders to explain why climate is not on its radar. If they say no comment, ask again.
And again.
Forbes contributor Vitas Carosella (Photo credit: VItas Carosella)
Photo at top: Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi in action against Nashville SC, with Aramco signage in the background (Photo credit: AP/Michael Laughlin)
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