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LALIGA

Real Madrid: Greenpeace asks LaLiga to consider no-fly rule

The environmental NGO has singled out Real Madrid and Barça for taking short-haul flights and asked LaLiga to study a proposal to use trains instead.

Update:
Varios jugadores del Madrid posan durante un vuelo.

Greenpeace has approached LaLiga with a proposal for teams to use more environmentally friendly means of travel for short-haul trips between games, citing Real Madrid’s trips to Zaragoza and Salamanca to play Unionistas in the Copa del Rey as examples of cities that are accesible by Spain’s high-speed AVE rail system. 

Greenpeace cite Barcelona's flight for Clásico

LaLiga has said it will take the proposal on board but added that it cannot compel clubs to use land-based transport instead of short-haul flights. The NGO countered that LaLiga could make the information about the amount of C02 generated by flights available to club members so that they can call on their teams to consider the carbon footprint they generate each season. Greenpeace also cited Barcelona’s decision to fly to Madrid for the Clásico, with the capital being served several times daily by an AVE service that takes an average time to two hours and 49 minutes.

While the idea is scarcely feasible for teams travelling to the Balearic Islands or the Canaries, or a fixture between Athletic Bilbao and Sevilla with rail travel between the cities taking almost 10 hours, the AVE serves most of mainland Spain with Greenpeace stating rail travel emits 20 times less C02 than flying.