Time for the GAA to go on the wagon

Just under a week ago the GAA media gathered in Croke Park to hear confirmation of the association's intention to renew the Guinness hurling sponsorship for a further two years, writes Seán Moran

In the months leading up to decision time (this year was to be the last of the previous sponsorship deal) there was a feeling the time had come for a parting of the ways between the drinks company and the GAA.

Reasons weren't hard to pinpoint. With alcohol abuse and its related woes escalating in tandem with the economy throughout the 1990s, opposition to the sponsorship was beginning to emerge within the GAA.

When GAA president Seán Kelly took office a year ago he appointed a group, the Alcohol and Substance Abuse Task Force, to consider the matter. This was widely seen to be a way of devising an exit strategy from the sponsorship. And one of the more noteworthy aspects of the renewal deal is that the task force gave it the go-ahead in an interim report, specially requested by Kelly before he proceeded with the sponsorship.

All of the above indicates a degree of unease with the deal. At the launch Kelly was anxious to underline the socially desirable aspects of the sponsorship: "We can use the money to implement the recommendations of the task force in due course to try and alleviate the scourge of excessive drinking in this country." (Although presumably the money from any sponsor could have been so diverted.)

Even Brian Duffy, managing director of Diageo Ireland, acknowledged the awkward mood music playing in the background. At last week's launch he said: "We recognise too that this debate has been fuelled by the concerns, which have been expressed in relation to a drinks company being involved in sports sponsorship. Unfortunately much of what is said and written tries to over-simplify what is a complex and serious societal issue."

It's not hard to see where unease with this marriage of the alcohol industry and the national game originated. The statistics on excessive drinking and the plague of social ills it unleashes are familiar - but worth emphasising. Ireland tops the World Health Organisation's chart as Europe's heaviest drinkers. We have also made the most startling strides in our consumption of alcohol with only Luxembourg (whose case is distorted by a tiny population and large duty-free sales) accelerating faster.

In a way these figures are an aside. Regardless of how heroically we compete at elite international levels of oblivion drinking, everyone is aware of the impact the problem has on our society.

The health service ties up significant sums in coping with the consequences. A working party of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland estimated 12 per cent of hospital expenditure goes on the effects of alcohol and that 20 per cent of patients have a history of heavy drinking.

To this can be added the familiar, dismal roll call of social ills from street violence to domestic terror and drink-fuelled depression.

There may be consensus on the existence of a serious problem but any suggestion the GAA might play a role in addressing it by disassociating itself from Guinness has been greeted in prickly fashion.

Firstly there's the usual chorus of what-aboutery. Why is hurling being singled out when you've all these other sports events also being sponsored by alcohol companies? What about the Heineken Cup and the Budweiser Derby? Well for starters no one - and certainly not the Minister for Health - I've heard or read has suggested the Guinness All-Ireland should be the only alcohol-related sports sponsorship to be discontinued. It might be one of the - if not the - most prominent and consequently attracts more attention.

But the GAA can't have it both ways. Hurling can't be an art form and an indispensable expression of indigenous culture for the purposes of soliciting public funds and recognition but just another sport when it comes to alcohol sponsorship.

If the combination in the public mind of alcohol and sport is considered inappropriate, then why not show a bit of leadership on the subject? And that's the nub of it. There is still ambivalence about the core issue and it will be interesting to see what the task force suggests as a suitable response to what Kelly called "the scourge of excessive drinking in this country".

Although the task force gave the sponsorship renewal the go-ahead, overwhelmingly medical opinion, including the Irish Medical Organisation, favours the cessation of the links between drink and sport.

The second response is that alcohol abuse is a cultural phenomenon and that this culture must be confronted - a sort of "tough on drink and tough on the causes of drink" policy.

Hard to argue with that but equally hard to think of more powerful cultural icons than mass-appeal sports events - that after all is the reason companies, which are primarily businesses, want the sponsorship in the first place. For all the industry talk that advertising and sponsorship have no impact on consumption, it is part of the very drinking culture that needs to be addressed.

It's only recently Guinness had to pull a television advertisement that featured a hurler pondering a free while allowing his mind wander to the creamy pints that awaited him should he score. It should be emphasised this was not part of the GAA sponsorship but it raised similar issues.

The Advertising Standards Authority said that while it did not feel the ad equated the product with sporting success literally, a strong association between the two "gave rise to an implication that drinking can contribute to success", which is a breach of the advertising code.

How is this different from poster and television campaigns featuring mythologised hurlers complete with Guinness branding? None of this is easy for either the GAA or Guinness.

The contribution of the sponsors to the flowering of the game in the mid-1990s is well documented but that related to the quality of the advertising and support rather than anything intrinsic to the product.

It should also be acknowledged Guinness has also been good for the media, pioneering the provision of on-location working facilities for match reporters before even the GAA turned its mind to such matters.

Banning alcohol-related sports sponsorships isn't going to eliminate the problems caused by binge drinking but it's an obvious place to start.