Carolyn Harris insists ban on football shirt gambling sponsorship is “obvious”
Welsh Labour MP keen to follow in Spain’s footsteps with revocation of football kit advertising
The UK should follow Spain’s lead in the “obvious” banning of front-of-shirt betting sponsorships on football kits, according to Carolyn Harris MP.
Harris, who chairs the Gambling Related Harm All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), said gambling sponsorships normalise betting to children and would be in favour of implementing proposals similar to those introduced by Spain’s Consumer Affairs Minister Alberto Garzón.
A House of Lords select committee made 66 recommendations concerning the future of gambling this month, which included the prohibition of gambling sponsorships on football shirts, but not before 2023.
The Labour MP for Swansea East said she was “fairly confident” the law would shift when the new Gambling Act comes into force.
Harris said: “It’s one of the most obvious things to do and all the groups who have reported or commented on this have said it is an area [ministers] need to tackle immediately. So I’m quite confident that will happen.”
On the topic of young people, Harris lamented the intrinsic element of gambling within football.
Harris said: “It’s subliminal isn’t it? Even though you might have a whistle-to-whistle ban, you still get logos around the stadium, you see it on the shirts continually.
“From a very, very early age we’ve normalised the association between football and gambling. This is where we get this problem in later life.
“Young people grow up believing to become involved in gambling is completely normal without knowing anything about the consequences of when it crosses that line,” she added.
There are currently nine Premier League teams which hold front-of-shirt betting sponsorships. This could potentially fall to seven next season, after Aston Villa and Everton both announced moves to UK-based online car retailer Cazoo.