Opinion – Marina Izidro: Do ​​you want to go to the stadium? Worry about preserving the planet

Imagine Chelsea’s impeccable lawn completely flooded. It seems unlikely, catastrophic, even more so in a billionaire league like the Premier League. But there is no money or drainage system that can withstand intense rains much above normal.

The warning comes from academic David Goldblatt in the documentary “Football’s Toughest Opponent” (“Football’s Toughest Rival”). The show was shown on television this month here in England and addresses the effects of climate change on sport.

Goldblatt estimates that a quarter of stadiums in English football’s top four tiers are at risk of annual flooding or being submerged by 2050 from rain, rising rivers or sea levels. Chelsea’s is one of those mentioned.

Athletes tell how it is increasingly difficult to withstand the heat in pre-season, in the height of summer, in Italy and even in Germany. On July 19, the UK recorded the highest temperature in its history, 40.3ºC. It may not seem like much, but for a nation not prepared to live much above 30ºC – even train tracks melted – that day was chaos.

Extreme weather events are increasingly frequent and strong and impact all countries and sports to a lesser or greater degree. In Brazil, it is not uncommon to see stadiums flooded after storms and floods.

There is a chance to try to improve this scenario from Sunday, when the COP 27, the UN Climate Conference, starts in Egypt. I was at COP 26 last year and I’m going this year. I saw Brazil being ignored live by the rest of the world, which, of course, did not believe the government’s lies about deforestation data in the Amazon.

It will be a relief to see the country return to being a protagonist in climate discussions. President-elect Lula will and has already demonstrated that the preservation of the environment will be an important point of his government and foreign policy. It is up to us, journalists and civil society, to monitor and demand.

“We are Halland”

Having your name associated with a world football star could be considered lucky, right? That’s not what the director of the tourism chamber of a region in Sweden says. Halland County – an “a” and two “l”s – did not like the resemblance to Erling Haaland – two “a”s and an “l”, from Manchester City.

“We are Halland. He is Haaland,” said Jimmy Sandberg, director of Visit Halland. He says the Norwegian’s popularity is destroying the site’s promotion efforts. Many people misspell the player’s name on the internet and type “Halland”, and the algorithm already redirects to results linked to the attacker, making hashtags and search tools created by the agency unusable.

I took the test: I Googled “Halland” and the site tries to correct me: “Did you mean: Haaland.” On the side, the attacker’s photo and his profile on Wikipedia. I landed on the right website, visithalland.com, which describes the location as “an idyllic province on the west coast with a rich culinary culture and outdoor activities like cycling and even surfing, and a mix of beaches and lush forests”.

The director asked people to proofread the spelling of the player’s name before searching the internet. But does anyone believe that this is really bad? I don’t think even Sandberg. Many more people have now heard of Halland, and he even invited the Norwegian to visit: “See you in Halland, Haaland?” Nice marketing strategy.