“I’m sure people have seen videos of me arriving and leaving the training ground with my bike,” Hector Bellerin tells The Athletic. “I live in the centre of the city, so I use my bicycle for everything.”
Former Barcelona and Arsenal defender Bellerin this week spoke with international media in a video meet organised by La Liga. The Zoom call was called to help promote the environmental sustainability work of the Forever Green platform run by the foundation at his club Real Betis. It is a subject close to his heart.
“I use public transport as much as I can,” Bellerin continues. “Recycling is very easy, but still, a lot of people don’t do it. I always take my time to make a decision before buying something. We’re very used to buying things out of impulse. I take months before I make a purchase. That shows if I really want something, if I really need it.”
It quickly becomes clear that Betis and Forever Green have the right ambassador for their projects to raise awareness over climate change.
“It’s just taking your time to inform yourself and to know what’s the best decision that you can make, that is more sustainable, that’s better for the planet,” the full-back says. “There’s many little decisions that we can make.”
@alberam17 Tremenda Bici de bellerin 😂🙌🏻🚲 #bellerin #betis #bicibellerin ♬ sonido original – EDIT DE TODO
Bellerin has always wanted to play for Betis, the team both his grandmother and father supported. When he joined in 2021, originally on loan from Arsenal, he was immediately happy to get involved in the club’s environmental and social projects.
Sustainability and related issues were already a big concern for the Catalan (he was born in Barcelona), who, in 2020, announced via The Athletic that he had taken a sizeable shareholding in English League Two club Forest Green Rovers, recognised by FIFA as “the greenest football club in the world”.
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Exclusive: Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin invests in Forest Green Rovers
“It’s important for me to be part of a club that has a commitment, not just with sustainability, but also with football fans, their community,” Bellerin says. “Football brings people together and that togetherness can be pushed into lots of different projects. A club making it easier for fans and workers, players and staff, to have a greener lifestyle is an inspiration.
“Forest Green Rovers have been doing that for a long time. A club that plays European competition, with 60,000 people coming to the stadium every weekend can do even more. Among big clubs in Spain, Betis is an example and I’m very proud of how it influences and promotes this kind of behaviour through its foundation.”
Real Betis are currently sixth in the Spanish table (Joaquin Corchero/Europa Press via Getty Images)
Forever Green builds partnerships with other organisations and sponsors to promote environmental sustainability and fight climate change. It has launched more than 120 initiatives based around environmental sustainability in the last three years. These have included providing scooters and electric bicycles for Betis employees, organising an awards ceremony to recognise green initiatives within the football industry, and installing seats at the club’s Estadio Benito Villamarin made entirely from fishing nets recovered from the bottom of the sea.
This helped reduce Betis’ carbon footprint for the 2022-23 campaign by 31 per cent from its levels in 2018-19. Since last summer, that entire carbon footprint has been offset via a wind farm in Oaxaca, Mexico. Renovation projects at the Benito Villamarin and new Ciudad Deportiva Rafael Gordillo training ground are designed to be 100 per cent sustainable, with plans to reuse water, have solar panels for electricity, and install eco-friendly cork instead of rubber under all pitches.
“There is a lot of concern about greenwashing, so the most important thing in environmental issues is to be real,” Betis CEO Ramon Alarcon said on Zoom. “You have to measure your footprint, and then change your behaviour. We have a big issue with travel, as it is almost impossible not to use planes, and even more if you are playing in Europe, with games every three days. We try to travel by train when possible.”
Since 2019, Betis have partnered with Spain’s biggest rail operator Renfe, so all teams, male and female, travel by train for games when they can. For example, in April 2023, they made the 400-kilometre (250-mile) trip from Seville to Madrid to play Atletico Madrid. Betis’ leadership in this area was highlighted by French sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera during a public debate after Paris Saint-Germain covered the 380km journey to Nantes by private plane for a Ligue 1 game in 2022.
📸💚🚄 pic.twitter.com/LqwSOBK1z7
— Real Betis Balompié 🌴💚 (@RealBetis) April 1, 2023
Betis also include rival clubs they meet in Europe in green initiatives, such as when they partnered with Manchester United to plant trees when they visited Old Trafford in the Europa League last season.
Each season, Betis nominates one La Liga game home fixture as a ‘Forever Green’ game. When Espanyol visited last April, fans were encouraged to come to the Benito Villamarin by bicycle or public transport, electronic devices were collected for recycling at the stadium, and a special kit made from recycled materials was promoted. The club say such activities prevented the emission of almost 11 tonnes of carbon dioxide impact into the atmosphere, compared to a normal match.
🌳💚❤
¡El @ManUtd se une a #ForeverGreen!
Rafael Gordillo y @WesBrown24 han plantado juntos un árbol en la ciudad de Mánchester. pic.twitter.com/eA0Q7Kv7OP
— Real Betis Balompié 🌴💚 (@RealBetis) March 8, 2023
“The Forever Green matches are like a big party for our fans and our stakeholders, to celebrate and mobilise for this fight,” Rafael Muela, the general manager of Real Betis’ foundation, tells The Athletic. “We want to take advantage of football’s huge loudspeaker. To make fans realise it is necessary and possible to do something to improve the situation, with steps to make the planet a better home for everyone.”
“Having players like Hector with this sensibility is a privilege,” adds Muela. “He is an ambassador everywhere he interacts, even with the rest of the players, or the projects he is involved in. If a kid sees a footballer doing something for another person, or for the planet, the impact is much higher than anybody else, any other example.”
Forever Green is funded by commercial arrangements with local and international businesses, grants from European Union programmes, and through receiving one per cent of the salaries of all Betis first team players. It is also heavily involved in social and community projects in the Andalusian capital.
¡Reutilizamos ropa para construir espantapájaros en nuestro eco-huerto situado en @bioalverde! ♻️💚
Los futbolistas del #RBBjuvenilDH tuvieron una jornada de trabajo en equipo de la mano de #ForeverGreen 🌿😊 pic.twitter.com/Mp1WlsPl98
— Fundación Real Betis (@RBetisFundacion) January 9, 2024
Bellerin fits in well at the club, where current and past team-mates including Borja Iglesias, Aitor Ruibal and Isco have shared opinions about different social issues.
“Football clubs have always wanted to protect players,” Bellerin says. “We’d hear: ‘don’t talk about politics, just concentrate on your football.’ But as we get older, we’re capable of expressing our views. It’s important to exercise this influence that we have, not just football players, artists, any sort of person with influence. Here, with this group of players, we have had these conversations. We have had awkward conversations between us. We have wanted to learn.”
Bellerin, Iglesias (now at Bayer Leverkusen) and Isco were among the few active La Liga players to quickly criticise Luis Rubiales for kissing Spain national team player Jenni Hermoso after last year’s Women’s World Cup final. They have also challenged traditional ideas of masculinity with their clothes and appearance, suffering some blowback on social media and from local pundits.
“A lot of people, especially men, are sometimes scared of talking about these things,” Bellerin says. “They are scared of being called hypocrites, as maybe, in the past, they had different opinions, because of how we have been raised or educated. The internet today is very quick to cancel people, and not very accepting of mistakes. That makes it harder for people to reveal themselves.
“If we talk about sustainability, in the past I used to buy a lot of clothes. That does not mean I want to do that today. I am not the same person as I was. Not all footballers need to drive massive cars, or to be so strong, and so manly. We’re happy to be part of that change.”
FIFA, UEFA and many of football’s governing bodies often talk about sustainability and environmental issues. But global football competitions are ever-expanding, asking players and supporters to cover greater distances.
The 2030 World Cup is to be played on three continents and feature 48 countries. An expanded Club World Cup of 32 teams from six continents is planned for the United States in 2025. The Supercopa de Espana is now hosted by Saudi Arabia (Betis took part in 2023 as Copa del Rey winners). Clubs also play regular promotional games overseas (Betis played neighbours Sevilla in Guadalajara, Mexico, last summer).
Bellerin remains clear that there is still lots more that his club, and everyone involved in the sport, can do to help battle climate change.
Bellerin played at Barcelona and Sporting Lisbon before joining Betis permanently last year (Cristian Trujillo/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)
“In sport, there are so many things we do because of tradition, and we do not question them,” he says. “We take loads of planes. We play with a new shirt every single game.
“Here, we’re doing all we can. This has to be a global initiative, from all the football clubs, all the FAs, from governments, to make sure there is less waste in the products we use, in the transport we take. And also to feel there is help from people at the top, to make it easier for the people at the bottom.”
Those at the bottom, including the ordinary fan, might feel there is little they can do against such a huge issue as global warming. There can also be feelings of guilt when thinking about the serious consequences of our own travel or consumption decisions for millions of other less fortunate people around the world. Bellerin believes that each individual has real power to mobilise significant action in this area.
“One of the greener things that everyone can do is to vote, because voting means you put someone into power that is going to (support) green initiatives,” he says.
“Sometimes, as consumers, we feel a lot of blame. But it’s also the state, and the bigger companies that need to take responsibility, because they’re the ones that pollute the most. So we have a great opportunity every time we vote, to make sure that we can create a more sustainable future.”
(Top photo: Fran Santiago/Getty Images)
