Seán McCabe is concerned.
Not about Bohemian FC’s next opponents, nor those who lie in wait in the weeks and months ahead.
It’s of a greater, invisible opponent – one that is discernibly shaping the present and threatens to leave an indelible mark on the future.
The opponent: the climate emergency.
“It’s already occurring […] You can’t trick the laws of thermodynamics […] There is no vaccine for the climate crisis,” McCabe told CNN Sport.
The issue is a very real and personal one for the Irishman.
He’s a resident of Phibsborough, a neighborhood in the north of Dublin, and a member of local club, Bohemian FC.
In January this year the top-flight Irish football team unveiled McCabe as their new signing.
Not the marauding midfielder or sharpshooter striker that some supporters might have desired. Instead, the club’s Climate Justice Officer – a newly created voluntary role and the first position of its kind in world football.
Community led sustainable practice
The inconvenient truth is that the global game is not immune to changing climactic conditions.
A study published last year by the Rapid Transition Alliance forecasts that in time extreme weather events and sea level rises caused by climate change will flood stadiums and playing fields.