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Football

Arsenal Win Benefits the Environment

Arsenal win benefits the environment
Arsenal win benefits the environment

After two disappointing results against Manchester City and Brighton, Arsenal fans will have been glad to get their first win since the resumption of the Premier League season on Thursday night, beating Southampton 2 0 away at St.

And it is not just their supporters who are celebrating either. A leading environmental charity is happy too because Arsenal right-back and vice-captain Hctor Bellerin can begin to make good on his promise to plant 3,000 trees for every game that the Gunners win between now and the end of the season.

Bellerin is not your average Premier League footballer. Although born in Spain and brought up through the famous La Mesia academy system in Barcelona, he has been in England since he was 16, and now speaks English with a London accent.

He has a wide range of interests off the pitch, including art and literature, and is a regular at London Fashion week. He also speaks out on a wide range of social issues, and was invited as a guest speaker at the Oxford Union last year, where he more than held his own in front of an audience of several hundred students.

He is also a vegan, crediting the switch from eating meat in 2017 to an improvement in his overall health.

More recently, when the club was trying to agree a salary cut with the players during the lockdown because of the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the clubs finances, it was Bellerin as PFA (Professional Footballers Association) representative who led the negotiations on behalf of the players, showing an unexpected grasp of financial and legal matters.

A committed environmentalist who has spoken about publicly about the dangers posed by climate change and the damage caused by single-use plastics, for his current campaign Bellerin has partnered with the charity One Tree.

They have drawn attention to the fact that, every hour, 4,500 acres of forest are cleared somewhere in the world, leading to changes in weather patterns, and detrimental impacts on wildlife and eco-systems.

They hope that more people will be prepared to follow the right-backs example.

Arsenal fans just want their team to win but, if it benefits the environment, so much the better.