The week before Sydney FC’s fourth-round W-League clash against Melbourne City at Cromer Park in Manly, Sydney and its surrounding suburbs was blanketed in a thick, nightmarish haze. Smoke from the dozens of bushfires tearing across NSW swept eastwards and hung ominously over the city, its harbourside buildings barely visible in the dystopian fog.
As it happened, a timely shift in wind direction meant Sydney’s game against City went ahead. Football Federation Australia had acknowledged earlier in the week that they were keeping tabs on the situation as it unfolded. “The current forecasts for the area have the Air Quality Index (AQI) in a suitable range for the match to go ahead due to favourable wind conditions from the east,” it said, though conditions would be “constantly monitored … should the welfare of the players and match officials appear to be compromised”.
After the match, Sydney FC player Sofia Huerta was asked about whether the smoke had affected her preparation for the game, which her team lost 2-1. “I really noticed it in my throat; it gets super, super dry. But there’s not really anything we can do about it, so I try not to think about it too much. I definitely notice it, it’s not even a question,” the US international told Guardian Australia.
“We’ve talked about how it’s probably not very good for us, but no one has really said anything to us about it. I don’t know if we’re not supposed to practise. In the US this happened, and in some states we didn’t play; games were potentially going to be cancelled and so were practices. So I’m a little shocked that nothing has been brought to our attention or there’s no conversation about it because there’s a huge difference when there are no fires compared to when there is.”
Huerta was referring to the 2018 NWSL season, where massive wildfires spread across the north-west of the United States. Just as we’re seeing in Sydney, smoke from those fires drifted across a number of nearby cities. And yet, despite the health warnings, games went ahead, with some teams even providing oxygen masks on the sidelines for players who experienced breathing difficulties.
Forcing athletes to play in polluted air isn’t just uncomfortable; it could be fatal, especially for those who suffer from asthma and other lung or respiratory diseases, as well as children and the elderly. As climate health expert Dr. Liz Hanna said, people should “remain indoors and avoid outdoor activity, noting long-term exposure to pollution can lead to problems later in life”.
As global climate science has conclusively shown, summers like the one Australia is currently experiencing are only going to get worse – hotter, smokier and more dangerous. Football – and summer sport more generally – is therefore edging ever-closer to its own existential crisis. Extreme weather and rising temperatures will continue to threaten athlete and spectator welfare, meaning various summer sports will eventually have to reconsider their place in the Australian sporting calendar.
Indeed, this reckoning has already begun. On Tuesday, the smoke hovering over Sydney harbour forced the cancellation of the lead-up race to the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, the Big Boat Challenge, “for the safety of spectators, public and competitors,” while a Sheffield Shield match between NSW and Queensland at the Sydney Cricket Ground was barely visible to cameras. The NBL’s Sydney Kings have been forced into rethinking their training arrangements after the Auburn venue in which they were practising filled with smoke.
But sporting events can only be delayed, rescheduled or abandoned for so long before an alternative solution must be found.
These early glimpses into the effect of the climate crisis on Australian sport also lead to a larger conversation about the future of our cultural identities and traditions: summer sport is part of Australia’s national psyche. The image of Australia that we present to the world – and to ourselves – is set against a backdrop of outdoor summer activity, whether that is playing beach cricket with family during Christmas holidays, cycling along our many glittering coastlines, kicking a football around in a local park or a day out at a Test match or the Australian Open.
But as bushfire seasons lengthen and worsen, and as droughts, smoke and heat become the new normal, these Australian past-times – the images we use to tell the story of who we are and what we care about – are receding into distant memory.
Sport therefore has an increasingly important role to play in the climate conversation: its popularity and visibility across every Australian home and family means it’s perfectly placed in the public’s consciousness to push for tougher action, not just for its own benefit, but for the benefit of us all.
