Expert ‘worried’ as ‘devastating’ Liverpool-Tottenham deal agreed
Tottenham and Liverpool should in future think carefully before partnering with companies whose products have potentially dangerous health effects.
That is the view of medical expert Ben Dinnery, who runs the Premier Injuries site and has a background in injury and data analysis.
As relayed by Sport Business last Thursday (29 September), Coca-Cola has just struck sponsorship deals with multiple top European clubs, including Spurs and Liverpool.
But, as quoted by the Daily Mail the following day, British Medical Association board of science chair Professor David Strain slammed the soft drinks company’s marketing presence in sports.
He claimed that they are a contributor to UK’s “devastating obesity epidemic” and that it is “absurd” to see them tie in with Premier League clubs.
Dinnery insisted that Liverpool and Spurs need to understand their level of influence on impressionable young fans when striking new sponsorship deals.
“I think we need to understand and see what the deal looks like in terms of what products they push,” he told Football Insider’s Adam Williams.
“Powerade is one of their products, for example. So, you can see some synergy between the two brands.
“But you have to be very careful. We know that any advertising normalises the use of a product in normal life. It’s not necessarily the here and now, but advertising help influence belief and emotions. That’s the worry.
“I don’t want to lambast the clubs for partnering with these companies. But they need to consider which products they associate themselves with.
“If you look at the demographic, they are primed to be influenced by whatever the club is pushing out.“
In other news, this is the real reason Yves Bissouma has been frozen out at Tottenham.