Alcohol advertising should be banned at football tournaments says alcohol concern group
The chair of the Parliamentary Alcohol Misuse group, Lord Brooke, has called for a ban on advertising beer at football tournaments to protect children from “contradictory” health messages.
In the group’s 2015 manifesto Brooke said that marketing regulations are “failing to protect the youngest in society”, and called for statutory and independent regulatory control of both the alcohol and advertising industries with the ability to deploy sanctions such as fines to deter non-compliance.
According to the report viewers of “top flight football” are exposed to two alcohol references every minute and during the FIFA World Cup 2010, Carlsberg, the official beer of the England team expected to sell an extra 21 million pints.
Brooke commented: "It is so prevalent in so many areas. We have the Heineken cup here but they don't have one in France, even though they win it every time. You have the H cup so they don't spell out the name of the alcohol to all their young viewers, trying to reduce how much alcohol can be advertised to children.
"And the sports teams which are sponsored by drinks manufacturers mean that all these young people are out wearing these alcohol branded top. It is all embracing in many respects - there is no such thing as a threshold.”
Budweiser, Carling and Worthington beers have all sponsored a variety of high-profile football competitions in recent years.