Los Angeles or Chesterfield? San Diego or Salford?
Twenty Premier League clubs travel to different places throughout the preseason, but the impact of so many trips is still a problem.
For friendlies, half (10) of the clubs have traveled to the US; three have gone to the Far East, and the remaining clubs are spread out over Europe and the UK.
As part of their preseason itinerary, Manchester United will travel over 13,000 miles to play games in the US, Norway, and Scotland. It’s anticipated that Chelsea and Spurs would travel more than 12,000 miles.
Everton, on the other hand, will travel the least, having only one match outside of the United Kingdom in the Republic of Ireland.
A number of clubs also participate in matches with nearby non-league teams, which contributes significantly to the much-needed revenue needed to strengthen the local economy and make the football pyramid more viable. Eastleigh is played by Southampton, Dagenham by West Ham, Walsall by Villa, and Crawley by Palace. In May, three days after the season concluded, Spurs and Newcastle both traveled to Melbourne, Australia, for an exhibition match that Alan Shearer called “madness.”
When those air miles are taken into account, both teams will have flown more than 30,000 air miles during the off-season—roughly the equivalent of traveling around the world more than once—to participate in non-competitive games.
Newcastle and Spurs both have a target to be halve emissions by 2030 and be Net Zero by 2040, while Manchester United and Chelsea are in process of establishing an emissions reduction plan.
Net Zero requires the reduction and removal of all ‘non-essential emissions’ – so are these games essential?
All 20 clubs’ air miles totals in pre-season
Pre-season Premier League flights
Total air miles
Miles to fly around globe – 24,898
Man Utd – 12,864
Chelsea – 12,529
Spurs – 12,525
Brighton – 11,976
Newcastle – 11,576
Arsenal – 11,424
Aston Villa – 11,398
B’mouth – 10,904
Wolves – 10,150
West Ham – 9971
Man City – 9794
Crystal Palace – 8921
Liverpool – 8300
Forest – 5256
Fulham – 3070
Ipswich – 2675
Brentford – 1944
Southampton – 1503
Leicester – 1319
Everton – 511
Wycombe’s David Wheeler is a leading sustainability campaigner in football and told BBC Sport: “These games are only necessary in the sense that the clubs want to make more money and grow their fanbase”.
He added: “The vast majority of players don’t want to be away from their families, they don’t want to be travelling around the world after a full slog of a season. They’re overworked and injuries have gone through the roof, so there is a synergy between player welfare and planetary welfare.”
In April, Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said the football calendar is “getting to a tipping point”. However, the Premier League also launched its own branded ‘Summer Series’ of fixtures in the United States last year, which is due to return next year.
As part of the ongoing dispute around the global football calendar, world governing body Fifa accused some leagues of “hypocrisy” and “commercial self-interest” this week by sending their players on “extensive” global pre-season tours.