The alcohol industry will be the real winner of the 2014 World Cup, it was claimed today.
Representatives of the industry succeeded in overturning the Home Office minister Norman Baker’s decision not to relax licensing laws during the World Cup.
In the British Medical Journal, freelance journalist Jonathan Gornall outlines the situation.
He writes: "Within three months, a determined alcohol industry, fresh from its victory over minimum unit pricing and, as usual, aided and abetted in the House of Commons by its friends in the all party parliamentary beer group, had forced the government into another humiliating U-turn over its alcohol policies."
"In the UK, football and alcohol are inextricably linked," Mr Gornall writes. "But if the scale of alcohol’s influence on the English football is extraordinary, it is nothing compared with its efforts on the world stage."
"Home team Brazil may be the favourite to win the 2014 World Cup, but whichever country hoists aloft the trophy on 13 July the real winner will be the alcohol industry," he concludes.
Also in the journal, president of the College of Emergency Medicine, Dr Clifford Mann, states that the World Cup’s extended pub opening hours "make no sense".
"British society does not deal well with alcohol, and as a consequence it pays a very high price in terms of lives damaged and healthcare costs," Dr Mann writes.
"The consequences of alcohol abuse are seen daily in the country’s emergency departments and manifest themselves as injuries, as well as acute and chronic illnesses."
"This temporary relaxation of the licensing laws is unwelcome," he adds. "We must reject the argument that licensing laws should reflect sporting timetables and television schedules."
Mann, C. World Cup’s extended pub opening hours make no sense. BMJ 11 June 2014 doi: 10.1136/bmj.g3805 [abstract]
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