Public opinion on alcohol consumption and intoxication at Swedish professional football events

Abstract

BackgroundAlcohol-related problems at professional sporting events are of increasing concern and alarming reports are often reported in international media. Although alcohol consumption increases the risk for interpersonal violence, it is viewed as a focal element of large football events. Sweden has a long tradition of high public support for strict alcohol-control policies. However, little is known about public opinions on alcohol intoxication and the support for interventions to decrease intoxication at football events. The current study explored the public opinion towards alcohol use, intoxication and alcohol policies at professional football matches in Sweden.MethodsA cross-sectional design was utilized and a random general population sample of 3503 adult Swedish residents was asked to participate in a web survey during 2016 (response rate 68%).ResultsIn total, 26% of the respondents supported alcohol sales at football events. Over 90% reported that obviously intoxicated spectators should be denied entrance or evicted from arenas. The support for regulations limiting alcohol availability varied with background factors such as gender, alcohol use and frequency of football event attendance.ConclusionsThere is a strong public consensus for strategies and policies to reduce alcohol sales and intoxication levels at football matches. This public support has implications for our preventive efforts and will facilitate the implementation of strategies and policy changes.

Adolescents’ Alcohol Use in Botellon and Attitudes towards Alcohol Use and Prevention Policies

“…As age increased, agreement with the statements "a good night out means getting drunk", "it is acceptable for people under 18 years of age to buy or be bought" and "drunk people ruin a night out" decreased. In line with previous studies, these results indicate that people who do not drink tend to be more supportive of alcohol policies while those who use alcohol, and thus are more affected by the regulations, are less supportive [42][43][44].…”

High levels of alcohol intoxication and strong support for restrictive alcohol policies among music festival visitors

“…There was generally high support for restrictive alcohol policies among the participants, similar to previous Swedish studies regarding alcohol intoxication in clubs [62] or soccer arenas in Sweden [63]. Strong public support for restrictive alcohol policies has also been demonstrated in the US and Canada [64, 65].…”

“…Regarding both opinions on alcohol use and alcohol policies, men were more liberal towards alcohol use and less supportive of restrictive alcohol policies compared to women. In a study investigating opinions on alcohol drinking in soccer arenas, men had a more liberal attitude than women about alcohol use in the arenas, although there was no significant effect of gender regarding opinions on policies towards highly intoxicated individuals [63]. In contrast, similar to the present study, a previous study on alcohol drinking in clubs in Sweden demonstrated that men were less supportive of restrictive alcohol policies than women [62].…”

Overserving and Allowed Entry of Obviously Alcohol‐Intoxicated Spectators at Sporting Events

“…Hence, the intervention will be implemented after this study was conducted. Moreover, we recently published a paper presenting the public opinion's view of alcohol consumption and intoxication at professional football events (Skoglund et al., ). Results reveal a strong consensus for strategies and policies to reduce alcohol sales and intoxication levels among spectators at football matches, thus giving us the population's support for our developed prevention intervention program.…”