David Wheeler will be in full footballer mode on Saturday, but the Wycombe Wanderers midfielder also has another passion in his life – a passion which he would be willing to stand by, even if it interfered with his job.
Wheeler has been at Wycombe since July 2019. He has made 126 appearances for the club. He is settled and happy at the club. But there is one thing which would make him walk away.
“I know personally that if we started to be sponsored by a fossil fuel company or a petrochemicals company, I would say I’m not going to play with that on my shirt,” he tells Mirror Football . “That’s the level that I’m passionate about and believe it in. I don’t think it would be responsible to do that.”
Wheeler is a football player. But he is also a passionate environmentalist.
Football came first. He started out at Brighton ’s academy in his hometown, continued playing in non-league while studying sports science at Brunel University and wound up at Wycombe via stints with Exeter City and QPR.
The interest in sustainability came later. He had his interest piqued by documentaries like Cowspiracy, What the Health and Before the Flood and, after researching more, decided to use his platform to try and help make a difference.
“There’s definitely still a lot to do from my own perspective,” he says. “I went vegetarian a few years ago, but that was a gradual process of going from meat to fish to vegetarian. I still haven’t felt able to go vegan yet. I’m looking to get an electric car, but I still haven’t managed to do that yet because they’re still pretty expensive.
“There’s still a journey to go on, but I think I felt like I wanted to have more of an impact, especially being a current footballer with some sort of platform, even if it’s quite small. Being in the public eye, I felt a bit more of a responsibility to have an impact and be a bit more vocal about it.”
Fan power
That process has seen Wheeler become an ambassador for sustainability movements in football Planet League and Football for Future. His efforts have helped make a measurable impact.
Planet League has brought 77 professional football clubs together for the Planet League Cup, which pits football fans against each other in a competition to go green. Three weeks into their five-week competition and over 30,000 actions have been completed, with League Two club Northampton Town leading the way at the top of the Planet League Cup, ahead of Premier League giants Manchester United and West Ham.
Already the challenges have already seen 111,492kg of CO2 saved, 5,624 hours of screentime reduced and 61,728 litres of hot water saved.
“It’s bringing people along on a journey,” Wheeler explains. “It’s about doing climate action in a quite accessible way that’s not too daunting, so that people can feel like they’re transitioning, rather than doing something drastic from the outset.
“I’m a big believer in football being the most influential sport in the world, in terms of being able to get your message to the biggest audience. Football could have a huge say in influencing so many people. This is just one way of doing that.”
Making a difference
Wheeler is not just a player for Wycombe – he also holds an unofficial sustainability role. He admits he is a “nightmare” for Wycombe’s head of operations, Neil Peters, because he is constantly suggesting ways the club can be more environmentally friendly, from making LED advertising hoardings more efficient to improving the way the club deals with its waste.
Peters isn’t the only one on the receiving end of Wheeler’s limitless enthusiasm for the subject – his teammates are also occasionally politely told off. “You get a lot of people rolling their eyes if you tell them not to use a disposable coffee cup, or tell them to fill up their water bottle, instead of using plastic ones,” he says.
“You definitely get a bit of abuse and a bit of banter, but over time I’ve had teammates and others in football saying ‘because of you I’ve done this’. Often you feel like you’re not really having much of an impact but when you hear that you think it’s cool.”
Wheeler believes that playing in League One affords him the freedom to speak up for what he believes in, without fear of a backlash – something which he thinks prevents others from putting their heads above the parapet. “I think a big barrier, when you look at people like Piers Morgan or Richard Madeley, they’re just desperate to highlight a bit of hypocrisy,” he explains. “I think that’s what turns a lot of sports people off talking about these things, because they’re afraid of being labelled as a hypocrite and getting hounded on social media about it.”
Conflict of interest
Wheeler and others are doing all they can to get the message out and try to ensure that football plays its part in the battle against climate change. But the real power lies further up the food chain, with the game’s governing bodies.
He believes that, when it comes to organisations like FIFA and UEFA, there is a major problem which needs to be addressed. “There’s always going to be a conflict with those organisations, because they’re trying to make the most money from the game as possible,” he says. “That’s almost always not compatible with reducing your carbon footprint.
“The World Cup being in Qatar is not a good idea environmentally. The following World Cup [in 2026] is being split across Canada, US and Mexico, which is an extreme amount of air miles. It’s clear that it’s not really as much of a consideration as it needs to be.”
Climate change will be back on the news agenda next month when most of the world’s leaders, minus Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, will be in Egypt for the COP27 summit. So is Wheeler optimistic that football will play its part?
“I am very frustrated by the slowness of it,” he states. “I’m frustrated with the lack of leadership from UEFA, the FA, the Premier League. People in these positions have a moral responsibility to do the right thing and they are failing wholesale on that at the minute.
“I am hopeful and encouraged by the fact that people and fans are trying to do more all the time. It’s no coincidence that a lot of the fossil fuel companies and advertising around climate change are trying to pass the responsibility onto individuals. Realistically it’s going to be a drop in the ocean compared to what they can do.
“Football is nothing without the fans, so if there’s enough fan pressure then eventually the levy will break. But it’s frustratingly slow. A lot of these people at the top could really make a difference with the stroke of a pen but they’re unfortunately choosing greed over the environment, which is a shame.”
It shouldn’t be up to the fans. But with people like Wheeler leading the fight, they could end up being the deciding factor in forcing football’s governing bodies into action.
