Scottish Professional Football League refuses to ban gambling sponsors on football shirts
Several campaigners have spoken out about the decision not to ban the sponsors in the Scottish league.
The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) will not follow the English Premier League ban on gambling sponsors on football shirts.
The front-of-shirt ban was only recently passed and will go into force by the end of the 2025-26 football season.
A spokesperson for the SPFL said: “For many SPFL clubs, sponsorship from gambling companies is a significant source of income which helps to support their business models and enables investment in many of the important community activities which clubs undertake.
“Individual sponsorships are a matter for each club and there are no plans for a league-wide prescription of such deals.”
Currently, three Scottish Premiership clubs have such sponsors; Celtic has Dafabet on its shirts, Rangers has 32Red and Unibet and Dundee United has QuinnCasino.
Henry McLeish, former First Minister, said: “I am disappointed at the SPFL’s response because it seems to be not tenable to argue that it’s a matter for the clubs when indeed, as an association, they look after the general interests of football.
“I think we’re in a position in Scotland where, forgive the pun, it’s a match made in hell.
“Because, quite frankly, the SPFL is desperate for money, and of course, the gambling industry is desperate for advertising.”
According to statistics from the Scottish Health Survey, 0.4% of the Scottish population were identified as problem gamblers.
This equates to a total of roughly 18,000 people.
McLeish continued: “I cannot believe that in Scotland and the United Kingdom there are not good sponsors willing to come into the game if the game itself could be made more attractive to those particular sponsors.”
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