Celtic Should Already Be Way Out In Front Of Any Potential Booze And Betting Ban.

The news this week that the most cash-rich league in the world is effectively ending the sponsorship of betting firms on its strips is surprising only for those who have not been paying attention to the steady drum-beat of this stuff in the background.

I remember back when I was a mature student at the University of Stirling, myself and a fellow student council member trying to convince the union to voluntarily ban smoking during lunch and dinner. We were both pretty tuned in to what was happening in Holyrood at the time and knew that things were trending in that direction anyway.

The general manager was fiercely opposed to the very idea of it, and produced a lot of facts and figures to support his claims. But our central contention was that the change was coming whether he liked it or not and that before long it would be public health policy and it wouldn’t be just during mealtimes but a complete ban.

And of course it was, just three years later, and actually only two if you consider that we wouldn’t have implemented the policy until the following year.

The union could have been well ahead of the game on that one, and been an example to universities and colleges everywhere in Scotland. We’d also have had ample time to prepare students for the bigger change.

I was willing to look at both sides of the argument, but I just thought the argument itself was a bit pointless when it was inevitable anyway.

This is one of those situations where you can see what’s coming a mile down the road. If there’s an ounce of common sense amongst the leadership, the SFA and the SPFL should be out in front of this.

We shouldn’t be waiting for legislation to be enacted, the wheels of government are already in motion and so the governors of football should already be planning ahead.

And yet, the opposite is true. The SPFL tonight issued this statement;

“For many SPFL clubs, sponsorship from gambling companies is a significant source of income which helps to support their business models and enables investment in many of the important community activities which clubs undertake.

Individual sponsorships are a matter for each club and there are no plans for a league-wide proscription of such deals.”

These people will wait until laws are already passed before they show a scintilla of imagination.

In the meantime, instead of making alternative arrangements, they will lobby Westminster and Holyrood – in vain – to make sure those are never passed in the first place. Which they will be.

Celtic, as a club, should have alternative plans in motion right now and not wait on the governing bodies being caught asleep at the wheel.

I’m certain that we will already have done our homework on what the alternatives might be. We will be exploring various ideas in relation to future sponsorship deals, and we’d do so from the doubly advantageous position of not being too slow react and – shock horror – having been seen to have done the right thing. Not a bad reason.

The EPL has not taken this action for nothing.

They will have spoken to their political lobbyists and their risk management consultants and they’ll know that if this Tory government doesn’t enact a full ban that Labour will be more than happy to do it for them.

Here, in Scotland, the issue is already the subject of widespread debate. The Scottish Parliament Information Centre has already published a report calling for this. The MSP James Dornan proposed a motion in March last year and was co-sponsored by a cross party group of his parliamentary colleagues. This is moving in a definite direction.

Their consultation on the matter took evidence up until the end of last month.

There is very little doubt that the final report will recommend a ban, and the SPFL knows this full well, in the same way that the EPL already knows what Westminster will do.

This will happen, and it’s just a matter of when.

Clubs should be taking their own independent advice on this, and those which do will surely conclude that it’s in the works and that it’s better to be thinking about what the alternatives are right now.

Bans on alcohol sponsorship in football are equally likely, if not certain, and this is another area where our club should be well ahead of the curve. When these things finally do take place, nobody will be able to say that they weren’t warned.