The Sports Desk

Should Premier League clubs stop flying to domestic games?


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Manchester to Leicester. Nottingham to Blackpool. Liverpool to Newcastle. Just a small sample of the routes Premier League clubs have travelled by plane rather than road or rail despite the increased damage to the environment.

In this week’s podcast, a BBC Sport investigation reveals that Premier League clubs have taken more than 80 private charter flights between matches in the past two months – with some spending less than 30 minutes in the air.

We also reveal the frequent use of positioning flights – which are often empty - to get the planes to the players.

So are these flights an unjustifiable extravagance in the face of our global climate emergency – or a necessary evil at the elite end of sport where marginal gains and player welfare come first?

We hear the views of former Chelsea winger Pat Nevin, Forest Green chairman Dale Vince, football physio Matt Konopinski and Dr Sally Cairns, an aviation specialist from the Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions.

Panel: Nesta McGregor, Dan Roan, David Lockwood, Pat Nevin, Sally Cairns

Producer: Sam Sheringham

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