Man City boss Pep Guardiola criticised for ‘irresponsible’ comments by climate activists

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has been criticised by climate activists after he complained about the lack of flights available from Newcastle for Wednesday’s Carabao Cup tie.

City will take an Ellisons coach back to Manchester, a journey of about 142 miles, after the club were unable to source a plane for the journey home.

Guardiola expressed concern that the method of transport could impact his team’s recovery time, suggesting players may suffer from a lack of rest as a result.

“The travel manager told me, we cannot come back by plane because we don’t have a plane to travel back, so we have to take a bus,” Guardiola said on Tuesday.

“It’s not a problem but we arrive so late – two or three hours later.”

There are reportedly no trains available at the time of night, ruling out another option for the defending Premier League champions.

In response to Guardiola’s comments, Rob Bryher, from climate action group Possible, told i: “Sports teams and athletes are role models to millions, and they shouldn’t be modelling such irresponsible, high carbon behaviour as flying from one city to another in a small country.

“We’re in a climate crisis and sport is under threat. We already have to choose certain host countries and times of year to avoid extreme heat at tournaments. We’ve also seen winter sports threatened by a lack of snow and unseasonal weather.

“Professional sport should be at the frontline of climate action, not fuelling the flames. There’s nothing wrong with taking a coach or a train. In fact, it’s what thousands of their young fans will want to see – real climate leadership from their club”

City’s trip to Newcastle kicks off a run of four away games for Guardiola’s side as they compete for silverware on all fronts.

The Citizens visit Wolves on Saturday, RB Leipzig on 4 October and are away to Arsenal on 8 October.

Premier League clubs were criticised last season for their use of domestic flights, with research by BBC Sport earlier this year finding evidence of 81 instances of teams flying short distances to matches instead of travelling by road or rail.

The average duration of these flights was reportedly just 42 minutes, with some lasting less than half an hour.

Emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide from the burning of plane fuel contribute to climate change, and are significantly worse in short-haul flights than any other form of transport, according to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.