Our tips to help PSG see more green

• On Monday, PSG coach Christophe Galtier and player Kylian Mbappé sparked a heated controversy by taking very lightly a question about the club's mode of transport.

• Over the 2019-2020 season, the Professional Football League calculated that French Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 players made 65% of their journeys by plane, compared to 31% by bus and only 4% by train.

• 20 Minutes

  outlines the paths that Paris Saint-Germain could put in place to continue to shine on the pitch without destroying the planet.

"Every four minutes, the equivalent of a football field of forest disappears on the planet", notes WWF.

But the urgency does not seem to shake Paris Saint-Germain.

On Monday, coach Christophe Galtier and star footballer Kylian Mbappé caused controversy by taking a question about the mobility of the club particularly lightly.

The first joked about the use of the sand yacht in front of the hilarity of the second.

Giving the unpleasant impression to the French, to whom the government insistently asks for energy savings, that the stars of the round ball are, they, far from being "at the rendezvous of sobriety".

However, the latter can infiltrate everywhere… Even in the Olympus of PSG.

Overview of tips from

for the Parisian club to be greener (without becoming the Greens, however, we would not want to create a diplomatic incident with Saint-Etienne).

We put away the jet and we opt for the narwhal

Over the 2019-2020 season, the Professional Football League calculated that French Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 players made 65% of their journeys by plane, compared to 31% by bus and only 4% by train.

"It is often the mobility of players but also of technical teams, spectators or journalists that is the main greenhouse gas emission in sport", notes Véronique Martin, engineer and founder of RSE-Sport, which supports organizations sports on climate issues.

Christophe Roger, the president of the French sand yachting federation, humorously states that it is possible to make the Nantes-Paris trip in nine hours.

With, however, "a well-oriented and constant wind".

At

we would rather be for the transport narwhal, but without going that far, simple alternatives exist, contrary to what the irony of Christophe Galtier might lead us to believe.

"Getting around by train is a little more complex because you need a different protocol with, in particular, security guards, but the clubs would benefit from it because it would allow them to be less disconnected from societal issues and more close to the supporters", explains Antoine Miche, president of Football Ecologie France.

Especially since it is possible to charter a train for an exceptional event and football pilgrims could follow the example of those of Lourdes who, each year, seize this opportunity.

We have our bike serviced during the match

Even without completely changing their habits, the clubs could easily tend towards more sobriety.

Last Friday, the bus in the PSG colors went empty for the sole purpose of transporting the athletes from the stadium to the airport after the match.

"The clubs raise questions of comfort and logistics but, in this example, it is quite possible to rent a local bus with an equivalent level of comfort to travel between the stadium and the airport", underlines Véronique Martin .

Admittedly, the rented coach would not be flanked by the club logo.

But in terms of bad buzz, the club's uncontrolled broadcasts have a Zidane-like headbutt effect.

"It's less and less socially accepted," notes the founder of RSE-Sport.

The transport of football fans is also an essential issue.

In France, 30,000 matches are played each weekend, attracting many supporters.

These trips affect the carbon footprint of football and some clubs are working to reduce these emissions.

Without going so far as to offer horse-drawn carriages to the PSG team, the club could organize more carpooling, a practice already popular in volleyball, basketball and rugby, lists Véronique Martin.

In France, the good student is Olympique Lyonnais.

"They set up shuttles a few tens of minutes from the stadium, the Groupama stadium is accessible by tram for free, offer to revise the supporters' bikes during the match", illustrates Antoine Miche.

We (finally) adopt the gourd

To make your best passes and hold on until overtime, you have to stay hydrated.

But on the water saving side, while France has faced one of the worst droughts in its history, football still has work to do.

When PSG travels, the staff asks the clubs that receive them to provide 200 bottles of water, our colleagues from

us .

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, we therefore advise athletes to equip themselves with a water bottle.

Even if it means having two or three in advance in the fridge to quench your thirst without interruption.

Rainwater and spit

The lawns, like the stars who walk on them, benefit from derogations.

Even in the event of a drought, they continue to be watered to prevent the players from getting injured.

However, there are rainwater recovery systems, which Marseille and Lille have already adopted.

Something to hydrate with rainwater in addition to the spitting of footballers.

"AS Monaco uses a new lawn which requires very little water, no light and no pesticides", explains Antoine Miche.

A revolution because, unlike this 2.0 lawn, most professional football fields use light therapy devices to accelerate the growth of their lawn.

Foregoing football weed light therapy would already save energy.

To keep the cost down, most stadiums are now opting for LEDs to illuminate their pitch.

The most ambitious even opt for photovoltaic panels like Saint-Etienne, Nice or Olympique Lyonnais, list Antoine Miche.

“We should also play less at night but, for that, it is necessary to put all the actors around the table, especially the channels” which broadcast the matches and could lose in audience, underlines Véronique Martin.

At

, we think that we could also recover the electricity produced by athletes during their training.

Half an hour of cycling and, hop, we feed the stadium a little with the strength of the thighs.

But the clubs could already start by turning off the lights when the footballers are playing in the middle of the afternoon.

Muse of the green ball

Whatever solutions football clubs choose, one thing is certain: it is time to make an effort.

And not just on the field.

“Football clubs are ten or fifteen years behind in terms of corporate social responsibility on the environment,” asserts Antoine Miche.

Footballers are real planetary stars.

In France alone, football has 2.2 million licensees and Kylian Mbappé, 75 million subscribers on Instagram.

“When you are Mbappé, you have to be exemplary because you sometimes have a greater influence than that of the president”, underlines the president of Football Ecology France.

Valérie Masson-Delmotte, climatologist and co-president of the IPCC,

All about energy sobriety

“Today, we are only in an emergency, the situation is dramatic and affects billions of people.

We need stars like Mbappé to know, share and influence [in a good way] all those who follow them, ”underlines Véronique Martin.

Involved clubs, a driving federation and muses… The ingredients to prevent the most popular sport in the world from ending up on the sidelines when the climate has become one of the hottest topics on our planet.

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• Sport

• Paris-Saint-Germain (PSG)

• Kylian Mbappe

• Global warming