Five Live had a report today about how gambling, and to a lesser extent porn, are becoming quite serious addictions amongst some young footballers. You can listen to the report here. It’s ironic, then, that so many shirt sponsors in the British leagues are now tacky internet gambling companies. Step forward Aston Villa, Blackburn, Middlesborough and Spurs. And of course, pretty much every club has their own “gambling partner”.
It’s not unusual for sponsors to supply products to the players in their teams, so do the players at Villa et al get free lines of credit at their internet casinos?
And of course then there’s the alcohol adverts that appear on shirts. Do they take the advertising logos off the kidswear? No. No. No. Although I do read that because of religious sensibilities, you can buy an “alcohol free” Celtic shirt.
I was thinking about this when for the first time today, I realised that Barcelona were now sporting a shirt sponsor. Except that they’ve selected Unicef who of course aren’t paying for the privilege. I may still see if I can buy an unsponsored Barcelona shirt.