Football, Food, and a Greener Match-day: Real Betis and CUES Put Sustainability on the Menu 

Ask anyone what a match-day feels like, and you’ll get a familiar list: the buzz of the crowd, scarves in the air, nervous energy before kickoff—and somewhere in the mix, a bocadillo in hand. Food has always been part of how fans experience football. But sustainable food? That’s a rarer conversation. 

Through the Horizon Europe CUES project, Real Betis Balompié decided to bring that conversation into the stadium. 

Bringing sustainability into the match-day experience 

On 21 February, the Andalusian club hosted its fifth Forever Green Game, facing Rayo Vallecano in front of around 60,000 fans at the Estadio Benito Villamarín. Alongside the usual matchday atmosphere, fans were offered something different: a “Forever Green Menu.” 

Importantly, the menu was not designed in isolation. Before the intervention, fans were consulted through pitch-side interviews and online surveys. Their feedback was clear: supporters are open to sustainable food options, as long as they are affordable, recognizably local, and taste good. Price and flavour emerged as key priorities, alongside the importance of clear communication through trusted club channels such as social media and the club’s app. 

On match-day, sustainability messaging was integrated into the stadium environment, appearing on the maxi-screen and pitch-side LED boards—bringing the concept of sustainable eating directly into the fan experience. 

As Yijing Wang, CUES Scientific Coordinator explains, initiatives like this work because they connect with existing habits and emotions: 

“What we see in the Horizon Europe CUES project is that sustainable eating does not become meaningful to people through abstract information alone, but through everyday rituals and emotional connection. Football offers exactly that kind of setting. If we want people to rethink food choices, the message has to arrive where passion already lives. And on match-day, passion is certainly not in short supply. For many fans, the route to a more sustainable diet may begin somewhere between the first whistle and the first bite of a bocadillo.” – prof. dr. Yijing Wang, CUES Scientific Coordinator – Erasmus University Rotterdam 

A collaborative approach to driving change 

For the Real Betis Foundation, which spearheaded the initiative, the results confirmed what they had anticipated when joining the CUES project: there is genuine interest among fans, and football clubs can play a meaningful role beyond the pitch. 

The initiative brought together a wide range of stakeholders—researchers, international networks, the Foundation, the club, supporters, and stadium caterer Aramark—working collaboratively to deliver what CUES defines as its Triple Change Approach: influencing sustainable food behaviour across cultural, food value chain, and policy levels.  

From the club’s perspective, the intervention also marked an important step in strengthening collaboration across the food value chain and embedding sustainability into match-day operations: 

“The CUES project served as a catalyst to involve the food and beverage supplier in Real Betis’ environmental commitment. The momentum of the project allowed us, for the first time, to integrate a product from our eco-garden into the gastronomic offer on a match day, within the broader aim of expanding the local offer and reducing environmental impact. 

This is a first step toward establishing a dialogue that goes beyond commercial matters and encourages suppliers to focus on the environmental sustainability of their own offerings. The pilot will help us plan more ambitious actions in the coming years” – Rafael Muela Pastor, General manager, & Fausto Scaldaferri, Sustainability Specialist – Fundación Real Betis Balompié.