Full article (translated): Football Zone: The fifth in the world… J.League joins Asia’s first Sport Positive League, quantifying climate action, starting with the special tournament in 2026
Environmental sustainability will be quantified and announced in a ranking
On April 22, the J.League announced that it has decided to participate in the international initiative “Sport Positive League (SPL),” which quantifies environmental sustainability. The J.League (J1 to J3) will officially enter the league from the special tournament during the transitional period of the 2026 season. It will be the fifth to join after the Premier League, Championship (both in England), Bundesliga (Germany), and Ligue 1 (France), and the first in Asia to do so.
The SPL, established in 2018, is a system that quantifies the climate actions of soccer clubs and makes it easy to understand their progress and the direction they should aim for. A quantitative analysis of the effectiveness of 12 items important for climate change countermeasures reported by each club will be conducted using a unique evaluation criteria matrix. Weights will be assigned to each category theme, such as energy, waste, and transportation, to calculate the overall score. The SPL will publish the scores and rankings along with the activities.
Prior to the introduction of the SPL, the J.League established a new “J.League Sustainability Business Activity Subsidy System” to promote climate action initiatives. The first period will be from April 1, 2025 to March 15, 2026, and the total amount of subsidies will be 240 million yen (maximum application amount per club is 4 million yen).
The J.League also launched the “J.League Sustainability Business Activity Activation Project” to promote SPL participation, and reported on it at the J.League Board of Directors meeting held on the same day.
(FOOTBALL ZONE Editorial Department, Shintaro Inoue)
Link to full article in local language (Japanese): https://www.football-zone.net/archives/589452
