Alcohol free stadia at the World Cup in Football, Brazil 2014
Brazil 2014 is set to be the first alcohol-free World Cup after organisers confirmed that none of the 12 stadia hosting matches will be allowed to sell drinks under anti-hooligan laws.
42 people were killed in football related violence in Brazil between 1998 and 2008. In order to curb this violence, a ban on alcohol sales in stadia was imposed in April 2008 by the Public Ministry, which represents Brazil's magistrates.
A law change, which magistrates have pledged to fight, would be needed if stadia wanted to sell alcohol.
State governments in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Pernambuco, where games will be played, also have local rules stopping sales, and minimum jail terms for offences were added last week.
Eurocare fully supports the laws which restrict the sale of alcohol at sports events as these can prove useful as additional measures to complement other violence and crime reduction or health promotion activities.
Budweiser is still an important sponsor of the Fifa World Cup and has paid £32million to be an event partner: Their beer will be advertised at stadia and sold at fan zones.
Alcohol companies know that their sponsorships of these kind of events are investments that definetively pay off. AB InBev, maker of Budweiser beer, who is believed to be paying Fifa $25m per year for the exclusive sponsorship rights, said in recent second-quarter earnings calls that their World Cup sponsorship had boosted sales.
In the UK, Budweiser beer sales were up by nearly 19 per cent in the quarter over the comparable period in 2009, in large part because of World Cup-related Budweiser promotions, AB InBev said.
In China, Budweiser and Harbin, another AB InBev brand, also benefited from such promotions, the company added.
In addition to running commercials for Budweiser and some of its country-specific local brands during the football telecasts, Budweiser sponsored a “man of the match” vote following every one of the 64 games, which generated 1.5m fan votes.
In digital marketing efforts, 2.7m fans participated in Budweiser's “paint your face” promotion through Facebook and the company's web series, “Bud House”, registered 7m views online.
Mariann Skar, Secretary General of Eurocare said “It is not appropriate that alcohol should be so closely associated with sport and promoted alongside events that have a huge youth following. Having alcohol brands sponsoring sports events does not send out the right message to our young people”.