Glasgow City FC calls for alcohol sponsorship ban

Glasgow City FC calls for alcohol sponsorship ban

Glasgow City, Scotland’s leading female football club, has come out in support of a campaign to end alcohol sponsorship in Scottish sport.

Glasgow City FC has shown their backing for the ‘Calling Time’ campaign, led by Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) - which calls on the Scottish Government to implement a ban on alcohol sponsorship across all sport.

The campaign was launched on the back of a report which revealed that Scotland was the country with the second highest proportion of alcohol sports sponsors across ten top flight football leagues in Europe.

Every day in Scotland, almost 100 people are hospitalised and 3 people die purely because of alcohol.

The Calling Time campaign is based on a wide body of evidence that exposure to alcohol marketing directly influences alcohol consumption - which in turn drives Scotland’s alcohol crisis. The campaign aims to remove this harmful exposure to marketing in sport as a means to protect the public.

Glasgow City are one of a number of Official Supporters of the campaign, alongside other women's football clubs, supporters organisations, medical bodies, education institutes, and third sector organisations.

SHAAP are encouraging individuals who are supportive of their campaign to write to their MSP via their website.

Glasgow City Chief Executive, Laura Montgomery, commented:

“Glasgow City are absolutely delighted to show our full support to SHAAP’s Calling Time campaign.

“As a club, our entire ethos is built around championing women and girls and we see no place for alcohol sponsorship at our matches or indeed at any football matches.

“We want to get more people active, fit and healthy. We know our game attracts families and young people and our role as a club is to be a positive influence on our followers the best that we can.

“In no way does alcohol promotion align with this and we hope as many other clubs as possible sign up to back the campaign.”


Dr Alastair MacGilchrist, Chair of SHAAP, said:

I commend Glasgow City FC for their principled stance to reject alcohol sponsorship and we are proud to partnering with them on our Calling Time campaign.

“Football and sports clubs must recognise their responsibility to fans and the wider public to end the promotion of health harming commodities such as alcohol.

“Alcohol marketing directly influences how much and how often people consume alcohol and has no place in sport, particularly in a nation facing a crisis with alcohol.

“Individuals who share our call to action should write to their MSPs using the function on our website. It takes less than a minute.

“We need to see reasonable, evidenced measures such as a ban on sports sponsorship taken forward to repair our broken relationship with alcohol.”

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