FSA-affiliates Huddersfield Town Supporters’ Association (HTSA) have joined a number of clubs and Birmingham County FA in giving their support to the Pledgeball environment campaign.

Pledgeball encourages supporters “to make a small, easy change to their lifestyle to collectively have a big impact on our planet. Fans, players, clubs, grassroots teams – everyone can get involved.”

HTSA join Birmingham County FA, Bristol City, Bristol City Women, Eastleigh, Peckham Town FC and Shoreham FC in giving their support to Pledgeball, a registered charity.

The HTSA-Pledgeball partnership complements the fan group’s Sustainable Stadium Campaign which aims to raise awareness of pollution and climate issues, while making the John Smith’s Stadium more environmentally friendly.

They hope to help improve the recycling capacity of the stadium and phase out single use plastics. Additionally HTSA say water refill stations and improved transport options could have an impact.

An HTSA spokesperson said: “Over the past couple of years, fans and fans’ groups across the country have made a commitment to ensure that football becomes more environmentally sustainable. There are many things that fans can do to make a difference, and engaging with Pledgeball is one of them. 

“It’s a great platform, with a competitive twist, that helps raise awareness and encourages long-term changes that benefit the environment. We’re happy to be working with them and looking forward to announcing some of our joint initiatives for the coming season.”

How can I back Pledgeball?

Pledgeball’s campaign encourages fans of Great Britain’s football team to make sustainable lifestyle pledges in support of the women’s football team in the Tokyo summer games. 

“As an amateur footballer myself, I know the potential that a football community has to make change happen,” said Katie Cross, founder of Pledgeball. “This is such a great opportunity to showcase the potential power of this community whilst showing our support for the spectator-less Great Britain football team.

“The Lionesses Twitter followers all simply switching to using a shampoo bar equates to taking over 500 cars off the road and their influence stretches beyond this, as the impact ripples out.”

Supporters making pledges will be entered into a prize draw to win an official top donated by Lioness Georgia Stanway. The more fixtures you pledge for, the more entries into the prize draw you get.

• Supporters can make their pledges here…

What does the FSA think?

There is a real environmental emergency affecting our planet and football clubs and their supporters could potentially make an important contribution to tackling that. The FSA supports projects across football that look to lessen the environmental impact of the game and work with supporters to raise awareness of environmental sustainability.