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		13 - 19 June 2002 Issue No.590 Features	Current issue Previous issue Site map
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The odd couple

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A poster issued by the Tobacco Free Sports campaign showing Egypt's football icon Mahmoud El-Khatib; tobacco companies are major sponsors of motor racing; speeding towards 2006 the year tobacco funding to the tracks will come to an end

SPORTS and tobacco cannot mix, so the World Health Organisation (WHO) launched the slogan, 'Tobacco Free Sports.. Play it clean' for World No Tobacco Day 2002, reports Hala Sakr. In 1987 WHO designated May 31 as No Tobacco Day to draw global attention to tobacco control issues.
WHO has been joined by FIFA, the world's governing body for football, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Olympic AID and other regional and local sports organisations in this year's effort.
"We hope that our joint message will be heard loud and clear by sports organisations, sports fans and athletes all over the world", Gro Harlem Bruntland, WHO's director-general.
An international coalition of 12 renowned athletes (two from each of WHO's six regions) was formed. Mahmoud El-Khatib, a former Egyptian footballer, and Imran Khan, a former cricketer from Pakistan were chosen to represent the Eastern Mediterranean region.
"Let's make a personal resolution on this World No Tobacco Day that we will not accept any tobacco sponsorships either personally or as teams. We will not play in any such events, which directly or indirectly promote tobacco -- the killer," said Khan in a statement released on the occasion.
For years tobacco companies have been sponsoring sports events, exploiting their popularity to promote their products and attract new customers -- one successful way of evading advertising bans.
The tobacco-free Olympics tradition started in the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, Canada, and continues to this day. "Sport is about health. We firmly believe that the Olympics should not be associated with unhealthy behaviour. That's why we work so hard to promote policies such as the tobacco-free Olympics," said Juan Antonio Samaranch, former president of the IOC.
Even Formula One motor racing, the sport most closely associated with tobacco, has joined the anti-smoking camp. Tobacco sponsoring of motor racing accounted for almost two-thirds of sponsorship of all sports up to 1999. The Federation Internationale de l'Automobile Association (FIA) has voluntarily undertaken to end tobacco sponsorship of the sport by 2006.
This year tobacco-free sporting events were organised around the globe, such as the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup. The latter's kick-off in Korea on May 31 coincided with World No Tobacco Day.
On May 28, FIFA was given WHO's highest tobacco control award for its anti-tobacco efforts culminating in its decision to declare the 2002 World Cup, tobacco free.
"FIFA has been very ready to work with WHO to see how we can use the World Cup to reflect modern knowledge and modern awareness of the dangers of tobacco use," said Keith Cooper, FIFA's director of communications.
In 1982, one of the major tobacco companies was among the main sponsors of the World Cup in Spain, with a contract for Mexico in 1986. Since then, tobacco companies have been rejected by FIFA and the other sponsor companies from the pool of official sponsors of the World Cup or any other FIFA competition.
"This is an obligation towards all those who, in the past, have suffered as a consequence of having been duped into thinking that tobacco and football had something in common. And more importantly, it is an obligation to those in the future who may be in danger of being misled in the same way," said Cooper.

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