More than 80 British clubs are backing the weekend and are aiming to make their fixtures “greener games”, while some teams are wearing green armbands to show support for the fight against climate change.

In the build-up fans are being encouraged to score green goals for their respective teams, by doing actions including eating a veggie meal, walking and cycling instead of driving, turning down the thermostat by one degree or taking a shorter shower.

Fans can score green goals by either pledging to make green switches or taking an action and demonstrating it.

Fans that score green goals will be entered into a draw to win prizes including football tickets.

The team that scores the most green goals during the course of the campaign, which started on January 17 and runs until February 5 will win the Green Football Cup.

At the time of writing, Manchester United lead the Green Football Weekend fan leaderboard, with more than 13,000 goals, with Leicester City in second place with more than 7,000.

Green Football Weekend spokesperson Sarah Jacobs said: “In scoring green goals for their club, football fans have incredible power to help protect our world - and save money in the process.

“If the UK’s 36 million fans adopted three climate-friendly habits across the course of the 20-day tournament - reducing their shower time to four minutes, having two meat-free days per week and turning the thermostat down by one degree - fans could save more than 700 million kilograms CO2e, the equivalent of planting 11.78 million trees.”

The campaign, which is expected to become an annual event, is being backed by supporters including the Football Association, English Football League and Women’s Super League, as well as broadcasters BT Sport and Sky Sports.