INTERVIEW
A Senate report proposes to relax the Evin law, which notably prohibits the sale and advertising of alcoholic drinks and cigarettes in sports arenas. This measure would attract clubs, hard hit by the cessation of competitions due to the health crisis, brands of alcohol or tobacco, and could generate between 30 and 50 million euros in revenue per club and per year, according to an estimate from 2017, also carried out by senators.
"In view of the situation we know, you imagine the slogan? To help sport drink alcohol!", Mocked Friday at the microphone of Europe 1 Claude Evin, the former Minister of Health of François Mitterrand, at the origin of the text which bears his name.
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An "inconsistent" proposition
"The law that I presented regulates advertising, that is to say prohibits to advertise in any condition to tout a product that is known to be harmful to health," recalls l former socialist. "It also prohibits mixing, still in terms of advertising, sports and incitement to the consumption of alcohol." Even if he believes that the text he had adopted in 1991 has already been "considerably modified" over the years, Claude Evin considers that further relaxation would be a nonsense.
"There are measures to help sports clubs to take, he concedes, but the one which consists in saying: 'consume alcohol, that is what will save sporting activities' is inconsistent."
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No drink over 18 °
The Senate report released Wednesday nuances including the risk of overflows related to the sale of alcohol in stadiums. "Circumstances have changed completely over the past twenty years. The violence in the stadiums has been largely suppressed and the public channeled," it says. It also plans not to market drinks with an alcohol level above 18 °. Finally, a progress report would be made at the end of the first season having seen this relaxation come into effect.