One of Britain’s foremast conservation charities has investigated the amount of CO2 that is being created by tens of thousands of fans flying to and from the football World Cup in South Africa – and the results are staggering.

The event will create a total of 2,800,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, says the Woodland Trust, which is urging people to plant thousands more trees which “capture” carbon from the atmosphere. This is eight times more than the last tournament in Germany, mainly because the huge travel distances involved.

Just to mop up the carbon created by travelling English fans would take trees covering 228 football pitches.

In a snide comment about the lives of top footballers, it points out that a Range Rover driver by one of the “Wags” – their wives and girlfriends – creates 12 tonnes of carbon a year whereas typical African natives create between one and two tonnes a year for all their activities.

Carbon dioxide is said by many scientists to be a major component of climate change – a view denied by many others.