Football doesn’t just live in stadiums. It lives in our streets and parks, beaches and backyards. These are the everyday spaces where people come together to connect and belong.
But, whether playing or watching, when extreme heat, flooding or toxic air wipes out a game, it’s not just the 90 minutes that’s lost. It’s seeing our friends. It’s our weekly run-out. It’s how we finally switch off, the one thing that gets us out of our head for a couple of hours.
For millions of us across the world, football—whether playing or watching in parks, pitches, and stadiums week in, week out—is a lifeline.
But extreme weather puts all of that at risk. The routines, the relationships, the sense of belonging… It all rests on the places where we find the game we love.
Now we need to defend where football lives.
As fans come together for the biggest moment in football, we can celebrate our game while safeguarding its future. Let’s use the passion and energy of this summer’s football to support clean air, healthy communities, and vibrant spaces everywhere football is played.
Football is where we learn, dream, and connect. But all of this only exists because we have a place to play.
Those places — the dirt field, the beach, the school court, the stadium — are being threatened by floods, extreme heat, wildfires, and toxic air. And when they’re affected, the passion of future generations are too.
Protecting where we play is protecting the future of the game. Share this to join our call for more action to protect the pitches, people and places that make the sport possible from the threat of climate change and the destruction of nature.
From heatwaves to flooded pitches, football is feeling the impact of climate change, affecting players, fans and communities everywhere.
Join Earth FC and help protect the future of football. Be part of the squad. Follow @_earthfc
Guadalajara is one of the biggest cities in Mexico. Busy avenues, dense neighbourhoods and constant movement stretch in every direction.
But between all of that, you can always find a park or a green space hiding football pitches.
Some sit between apartment blocks, others among industrial areas, but all of them show how football spills far beyond the stadiums in Mexico.
All across the city, the game is part of the daily life.
Tell us: where else does football live in Guadalajara?
Football gives us so much beyond the 90 minutes. Just ask Drew Vinestock.
The game gripped Drew as a kid and hasn’t let go since. Through football he has found his people, carved out a career, and made life-altering memories.
His story is a universal one. The game is a lifeline to many, and when extreme weather or climate issues curtail the football calendar, the knock-on effects are devastating. Something has to change.
Follow _earthfc and let’s defend where football lives.
I didn’t fall in love straight away, but once football got under my skin that was it. The game has allowed me to see the world, meet incredible people, and experience unforgettable things.
But before all of that, my journey started on the grassroots pitches of Colorado Springs. Places like Cottonwood Creek Park, El Pomar and The Pride Soccer Complex. Places I still visit and train at to this day!
We owe it to the next generation of players to protect these spaces, so they can learn to love the game too. Follow _earthfc and let’s defend where football lives.
Even the best have to start somewhere.
And for USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino, that somewhere was a dirt field, where he took it to the older kids, grew as a personality, and fell in love with the game.
Speaking on Stick to Football, Pochettino highlighted the importance of providing and protecting spaces where young people in the United States can experience the life-forming memories that football gave him as a child.
These fields, pitches, and streets are the starting place for so many incredible journeys, but extreme weather is increasingly putting them at risk. Let’s defend where football lives.
Nothing can replace the memories made on the first pitch you ever play on.
The first goal you scored, the first tackle you won, the first time you truly fell in love with the sport.
Now more than ever, it’s so important for us to invest in grassroots pitches. We need to make sure the next generation, and every generation after that, has the same chance to create those memories.
Follow @_earthfc and let's defend where football lives.
Even in one of New York’s most densely populated boroughs, the game still finds its place.
Brooklyn is soccer mad, and you can see signs of it all across the neighbourhood. Full-size pitches sit right by the water, framed by piers. Fields are tucked between buildings, woven into everyday life. The game stretches across the few open green spaces too.
Here, soccer finds room wherever it can, shaped by the people who play it and the stories that unfold on the pitch.
Tell us, where else does the game lives in Brooklyn?
Iceland, Denmark, France, Portugal...soccer has taken me all over the world, but it all began sitting on that fence at Pinckneyville Park.
There, I made memories, formed friendships and learned to love the game that has given me everything. Spaces like this are irreplaceable, and they need protecting from extreme weather so everyone that comes after me can enjoy them too.
Follow _earthfc and let’s defend where football lives.
Introducing Fields for Future, a practical climate adaptation toolkit produced and developed in collaboration with @ftblforfuture and the U.S. Soccer Forward Foundation.
Community soccer in the United States is deeply local and highly varied. Many fields are multi-use, volunteer-led, or operating with limited budgets and ageing infrastructure. When extreme heat, flooding, wildfire smoke, or severe storms disrupt play, the impacts are felt immediately by players, coaches, officials, families, and communities. Adapting to climate risks is not just about protecting facilities. It is about safeguarding people, ensuring access to sport, and keeping community spaces open and welcoming for everyone.
This toolkit is designed to help you plan for those challenges with confidence. It translates climate science into soccer language, offering clear, practical guidance to support better decisions at pitch level. The focus is on adapting existing community fields and their surrounding infrastructure, such as playing surfaces, drainage, changing rooms, stands, and access routes, so they continue to serve their communities safely and reliably.
The free toolkit is available to read via the link in the _earthfc bio. Let’s defend where soccer lives.
For Leo, better known as @elsoccerguy_ , it all began at El Salvador Park in Santa Ana, California.
It’s where he first learned the game, where Friday pick-up matches turned into a place to grow, improve, and build friendships. Even though the field was meant for baseball, the community brought their own goals and made football live there.
Follow @_earthfc for more stories about the places that shape the game.
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