Women's football club Glasgow City call for end to alcohol sponsorship in Scottish sport

Leading women’s football club Glasgow City has given their support to a new campaign to end alcohol sponsorship in Scottish sport.

The ‘Calling Time’ campaign is led by Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) and has the aim of persuading the Scottish Government to bring into force a ban on alcohol sponsorship in sport.

SHAAP’s campaign comes after a report published by University of Stirling showed that Scotland has the second highest proportion of alcohol sponsors from ten top-flight European leagues.

In the Scottish Premiership, six of the 12 teams have at least one main alcohol sponsor or partner.

Glasgow City, who have won 14 of the last 15 top-flight titles in Scotland, are one of a number of official supporters of the campaign, alongside Scottish Women’s Football, Boroughmuir Thistle and Stenhousemuir football clubs, supporters organisations, medical bodies, education institutes, and third sector organisations.

City chief executive, Laura Montgomery, said: “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.”

SHAAP believe that the evidence shows that exposure to alcohol marketing directly influences alcohol consumption, and think that removing marketing will protect the public from the dangers of alcohol.

Elinor Jayne, director of SHAAP, said: “We need to see reasonable, evidenced measures such as a ban on sports sponsorship taken forward to repair our broken relationship with alcohol.

“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.”