Earlier this week, Celtic and Rangers signed a £1.5 million-a-year shirt sponsorship deal with Tennent's Lager.As is usual in these situations, there always seems to be somebody available to complain. The article in The Scottish Sun quoted Jack Law, the chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland.
One particular line that stood out was "Players don't drink alcohol before a game to ensure peak fitness but during the match itself they wear a top which promotes alcohol" I read this and wondered whether this had been a mis-print. Under what circumstances would anyone go to a football match and come away from the ground brainwashed into buying alcohol? It just simply doesn't happen!
In France, the authorities have banned the advertising of alcohol on club shirts but there is little evidence to suggest that this would work in Scotland. This is just another classic example of the do-gooders winning the PC battle. In fact, just to make the connection between players not drinking before a game then going out with an alcohol advert on their jersey potentially stimulating alcoholism is almost beyond belief. Seeing AIG on the front of a Manchester United shirt doesn't flick a switch in peoples' minds telling them to start banking.
Snooker's long association with Embassy Cigarettes was cut short when the smoking ban came into force a few years ago. Any sports fan of a certain age would agree that the fact that Embassy sponsored the World Championships had nothing to do with whether or not they smoked.
People will continue to smoke and drink regardless of an alcohol or cigarette company sponsoring a major sporting event. With money playing such a huge part in modern sport, banning advertising is just pointless, even if I do harbour a yearning to see the return of the sponsor-less football jersey...
(Photograph taken from www.mirrorfootball.co.uk)
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