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Despite England's early departure from the World Cup, environmentalists have cause for celebration - for this was the first time the environment was on the agenda for an international football competition.

Fifa implemented a number of measures to reduce the environmental impact of the event, from minimising food packaging and installing waterless urinals, to handing out a 'Green Passport' booklet to visiting fans to encourage responsible tourism. 

The UN's request to all the nations taking part in the World Cup to take steps to put their emissions back into balance by offsetting was taken up by over 50% of teams. Interestingly, many of the teams who acted on this call were from developing countries; Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Uruguay were amongst the carbon neutral teams. As were England, whose involvement was made less impressive by the fact that the cost of offsetting is unlikely to have been more than the bill for a day’s salary.