The British government is coming under fire for its decision to expand pub hours during the World Cup (in March, the Home Office declared that liquor licensing laws would be “relaxed” during England’s matches). Since then, both doctors and regular people have spoken out against the extended hours.
Not Doctor Approved
Dr. Clifford Mann, president of the College of Emergency Medicine, noted, “Popular, it may be, but sensible? I beg to differ. 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.”
Earlier in the week, the non-profit group Alcohol Concern explained how closely alcohol and soccer have become connected over the years, and how there are plenty of “forces” during the highly anticipated event which tend to “encourage people to drink too much.” They also noted, “It is difficult to reconcile football’s potential for creating and promoting healthy and active lifestyles with the volume of alcohol marketing associated with the sport.”
Sick of Putting out World Cup Fires
Another organization that has no interest in seeing rabid World Cup fans get absolutely annihilated is the London Fire Brigade. They’ve even created a Twitter campaign, #TakeawayWorldCup, to encourage wasted soccer fans to either stop for a bite to ear or order take-out/delivery (and abstain from cooking for themselves) if they’ve chosen to get drunk at home. Sounds like an odd request, but it actually makes lots of sense, seeing as the 2010 World Cup perfectly proved the Fire Brigade’s theory when there were 620 house fires (approximately 20 per day) during the festivities. And the most common prompt for those fires was none other than falling asleep while cooking drunk. Ugh.
Sports or Booze? I’ll Take Neither
Maybe it’s because I loathe sports, or maybe it’s just that I don’t drink these days. Whatever the reason, the idea of drunken masses of rabid soccer fans descending on local London pubs like angry bees just kind of…repulses me all around. Why is drinking so closely tied with sports, in general? I guess it’s similar to how birthday parties or other social events are tied to alcohol; when people get all crazy excited and celebratory about something, they want to get loaded to enhance the high? Or something? I’m honestly not sure. But the idea of downing drinks either from a stadium or from my living room holds absolutely no appeal to me. And while we still live in a drinking-focused world—especially, er, in the UK—and “Don’t Drink and Cook” probably doesn’t have the potential to take off the way “Don’t Drink and Drive” did—at least some are recognizing the potential dangers out there.
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