In this blog, Alan Russell, the Chief Executive of Supporters Direct Scotland (SDS), reflects on the findings of SHAAP and SDS’ recent focus group, the need for democratic decision making in Scottish football, and his experience of the Euros 2024.
SDS & SHAAP – AN ONGOING PARTNERSHIP
We were delighted to continue our work alongside SHAAP this summer, helping to recruit fans to be part of focus groups exploring attitudes towards advertising and sponsorship in Scottish football. I bristle when I hear football described as “a product”, when often it is we, the fans, who are the product! Our attention is worth a lot, and the sport generates a lot of money as a result of the goods and services being advertised to us. We know that advertising works – companies wouldn’t spend money on it if it didn’t lead to higher sales – and we need to accept responsibility for any harm caused by that increased consumption. It is vital that we understand the full impact of our game’s commercial choices, however lucrative they are.
Through the focus groups we heard from fans who drew parallels to tobacco sponsorship (historically) and gambling sponsorship (currently). Although fans weren’t as concerned about alcohol sponsorship, there was still concern about the impact on Scottish football’s public image, and on supporters and the wider community:
“There is a continual reliance on gambling and alcohol sponsorship to prop up our finances when the rest of the world is trending away from that.”
“When it comes to mental health and well-being, I don’t think we do anyone justice at by entertaining these companies, but they seem to be the only companies with money, which is why clubs are still going for them.”
“I think clubs have a social responsibility. If they want to engage with the community and get families and people to engage with the club, then they need to be aware of their moral and social responsibility.”
FAN INVOLVEMENT IN DECISION-MAKING
I am proud of the widely supported statistic that Scotland has the highest number per-capita of regular match-going football supporters of any country in Europe. Every section of society and every democratic group are within our numbers, and football is a massive part of our lives. And yet, many of us are very rarely asked for anything other than vocal and financial support to our clubs and our national teams. Of course, there are lots of exceptions to this – the eight fan-owned clubs in our professional league take fan engagement seriously, and many others have a keen ear to the views of their supporters.
As a national supporters organisation we conduct surveys to canvas opinion on a range of topics, and are always ready and available to offer this perspective when major decisions are taken – but both at a club level and a national level we are often not given the opportunity to do so until after the fact. It frustrates me that this leaves fans looking like Scottish football’s biggest critics, rather than its biggest supporters! Over many years we have proven time and again that fans can offer a practical, pragmatic and nuanced perspective on the biggest questions and thorniest issues, but only if we are part of the conversation.
EURO 2024
I was fortunate enough to be able to travel to Germany for the Euros last month – and with a better series of performances and results I would have loved to extend my stay into July. Football has become hugely commercialised in recent years, and it is now par for the course that tournament organisers partner with a bewildering range of sponsors. I confess that I have no idea what many of the companies whose logos are emblazoned around the stadiums do! One thing that struck me, though, was that unlike our domestic competitions, Euro 2024 did not sell naming rights to the tournament or to the stadiums, and addictive products such as alcohol and gambling were seemingly absent from the pitchside advertising. Alcohol brands were only seen in the refreshment kiosks, and on the reusable plastic drinks cups (many of which seemed to find their way towards the corner flags, rather than being refilled, sadly).
Our involvement in Euro 2024 was thankfully free of trouble, friendships were forged, and Scotland’s reputation was enhanced by our good humour in the face of footballing failure. I can’t wait for our next qualification!
SHAAP Blogposts are published with the permission of the authors. The views expressed are solely the authors’ own and do not necessarily represent the views of Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP).