Betting firms are making the beautiful game ugly
BEING a Dunfermline Athletic fan – with a one-year-old running me ragged at home – I don’t often have the time or interest to concern myself with the internal goings on at other Scottish football clubs.
But last week, Hamilton Accies manager Brian Rice wrote to the Scottish Football Association and admitted to placing bets on football matches – although none involved his own team.
Rice, a former heavy better who had thought he had kicked the habit, admitted: ‘The reality is I am an addict and while I have been proud of the fact I have been in recovery from this disease, a key part of the recovery programme is honesty – honesty to myself and honesty to those who have and who continue to support me, including my family and my football family at Hamilton.’
One of the great joys of being a political leader is that you get to see all sorts of organisations across the country and talk with people doing brilliant work.
During the 2016 Holyrood election, I visited Hamilton and spoke to some of the team about the work the club does to help those tackling addiction – mostly drink and drugs.
Believing their job is to be a positive force for the local community, Accies provide space within their stadium offices, partnership with support workers helping people to recover and focus away from their addiction.
It is everything you want a community club to be.
That is why it was no surprise to see Hamilton back their manager, saying they wanted to help him through his relapse and would ensure he kept his post.
It’s now over to the SFA as to how it handles this case, with a hearing set for Thursday.
Rice has said he will hold his hands up to everything – making sure it is all out in the open so that he can start his recovery truthfully and wholeheartedly.
I hope the SFA rises to this undoubted challenge and breach of rules, by showing it understands how complicated the issue of sports betting is and that gambling addiction is a disease.
I also hope it understands that this issue is about far more than the case of Brian Rice.
To keep Scotland’s league competitions clean and above board, we have rules saying that professional footballers and managers cannot bet on games.
Yet these same footballers and managers are drawing their wages, in part, from the gambling companies themselves.
All of Scotland’s top three leagues are sponsored by gambling firms – as are both of the main cup competitions.
Watch an Old Firm game and there are two more betting companies emblazoned over the chest of every single player. Fully half of the teams in the English premiership have gambling firms as shirt sponsors.
The broadcast rights to this year’s FA Cup were sold to seven separate gambling firms, with anyone who placed a bet on the match then able to watch matches for free, streamed through their chosen bookie’s website.
I am not a puritan and I completely understand that thousands of people are able to enjoy the occasional flutter without developing an addiction.
But for many people, gambling does become a serious problem.
It ruins lives, costs jobs and breaks up marriages.
As mental health national director Claire Murdoch warned ten days ago, the health service ‘should not be expected to pick up the pieces’ caused by problem gambling. She added: ‘As the head of England’s mental health services and a nurse of more than 30 years’ experience, I have seen first-hand the devastating impact on mental wellbeing of addiction and am concerned that the prevalence of gambling in our society is causing harm.’
SPORTS sponsorship by tobacco firms and alcohol suppliers was banned precisely because of the link between problem smoking and drinking and its impact on physical health.
Governments of all stripes are keen to say that mental health should enjoy the same parity of esteem as physical health when we’re making policy decisions.
Well, problem gambling can devastate mental health. If we’re serious about a happier, healthier nation, it’s time to stop part-funding million-pound footballers from the lost bets of addicts.
The level of gambling promotion in football is making the beautiful game ugly.