According to an article published in the famous British Medical Journal, alcohol brands are already the “real winners” of the World Cup. FIFA’s links with industrialists in the sector are denounced.
Whichever nation wins the 2014 World Cup, the winner is already known. It won’t be Brazil or maybe even France, but just alcohol. This is the point of view developed by the independent journalist Jonathan Gornall in an article which has just been published in the famous journal le British Medical Journal (BMJ).
While last year the British public authorities were adamant about the possible relaxation of the laws on alcohol licensing in pubs, finally the industrialists of the sector have already won the victory. “Brazil, the host country, is certainly the favorite to win this 2014 World Cup. But it doesn’t matter which country will lift the trophy on July 13, the real winner will be the alcohol industry”, affirms Jonathan Gornall from the start of his article. According to him, the drama will therefore be that this event, which is extremely popular around the world, will also be an opportunity for thousands of young people to be exposed to the powerful and aggressive marketing of alcohol brands.
Close links between alcohol and the world of football
“The nations claiming to host the World Cup and the International Football Federation (FIFA) have a long history of supporting the financial interests of its partners, notably Budweiser, the official beer sponsor of the tournament, while imposing extreme conditions to governments around the world, ”protested Jonathan Gornall in his BMJ article.
It specifies, for example, one of these most controversial rules: the host country must waive the tax on profits made by FIFA’s business partners during the World Cup, an obscene condition that will leave sponsors such as Budweiser free to leave Brazil with his pockets full. A shortfall of around £ 312 million according to an estimate made by the anti-poverty organization InspirAction. “The price of these tax breaks for these giants will be paid by people living in poverty in Brazil,” Isabel Ortigosa of InspirAction said in a statement. The millions that FIFA demands for its sponsors should be used for the benefit of many poor communities in Brazil, and not be used to further enrich the powerful ”. Finally Jonathan Gornall cites Qatar to illustrate the power of Fifa. According to him, even this strict Muslim country with very strict alcohol laws has already allowed the sale of alcohol in places where supporters will be in 2022.
Public health, the big loser of the football Worlds
So according to the column of this journalist in the BMJ, the biggest loser of the World Cups, year after year is public health. However, he recalls that in 1991 France banned advertising and sponsorships linked to alcohol in sport. He cites in particular a study published in 2013 which assessed the impact of the 2010 World Cup compared to emergency consultations in Great Britain during this period. Result: the authors of this work had shown that admissions to the emergency room following assaults, most often associated with alcohol, had increased by 37.5% on the days when the England team had played.
The BMJ article points out that in Brazil, public health experts already fear the legacy that will be left by this World Cup. They fear, for example, a return to the dark days of violence in stadiums fueled by alcohol. According to these specialists, Fifa, on behalf of Budweiser, has even harassed the Brazilian government to abandon its long-standing ban on the presence of alcohol in stadiums. “It’s shocking that Fifa can come to a country and make it change its laws, plague Professor Ronaldo Laranjeira, psychiatrist at the University of Sao Paulo. We have been very active in trying to embarrass the government on this issue, but in the end it was the alcohol industry that won. But the main fear of these experts is that this temporary suspension of the law will persist and become permanent after the World Cup.
.
