The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Ban booze adverts in sport plea
Former first minister Henry McLeish has urged Nicola Sturgeon’s government to call time on alcohol advertising in sports after research showed Scotland has more such ads in top flight football than most European leagues.
Only Belgium has a higher proportion of alcohol advertising than Scotland, the Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (Shaap) said, with half of the country’s Premiership teams having at least one alcohol company as a main sponsor or partner.
Alastair MacGilchrist, chairman of Shaap, said it is time to ban such sponsorship as his organisation launched its Calling Time campaign.
Mr McLeish, an avid football fan, said the “very special and unique” commitment shown by supporters to their clubs is “being capitalised on by the alcohol industry”.
He added: “We must find a better way to finance Scottish football, finding sponsors with values that align with sports and community, and that’s why I support today’s call for a ban on alcohol sponsorship of sports.”
Dr MacGilchrist urged the Scottish Government to “break the bond between alcohol and sport by banning alcohol sponsorship of sport in order to protect the health of people in Scotland”.
His organisation said sport sponsorship provides alcohol companies with a prominent and highly attractive method of reaching a large audience.
In the research, carried out by Stirling University’s Institute for Social Marketing and Health, it found 6.4% of sponsorship in Scottish football is from the alcohol industry, far higher than the 2.6% average across all 10 countries investigated.
Shaap said countries with laws restricting alcohol marketing and sponsorship have comparatively less alcohol sponsorship in their top flight clubs.
Currently in Scotland and the rest of the UK, alcohol and sport sponsorship is self-regulated.
But the Scottish Government is set to consult on plans to restrict alcohol marketing.
Tom Bennett, of the Scottish Recovery Consortium, said: “It’s completely unacceptable that people are bombarded with alcohol sponsorship when attending their favourite sports events.”