From the Daily Mail:
Wimbledon has banned spectators from bringing into the ground food or drink not manufactured by the firms which pay tens of millions of pounds to sponsor the tournament. Even items as innocuous as a small pot of yoghurt or a milkshake are banned under the draconian regulation. Officials claim that if a spectator were caught on a television camera drinking such an item, that would constitute advertising. And the firms which paid millions of dollars to be the tournament's official sponsors would be none too pleased.
Marilyn Still, 57, a mother-of-two from Brighton is one of the many who had food items confiscated from them as they entered Wimbledon. As she entered the ground, she was made to hand over two small pots of yoghurt and two small bottles of chocolate milkshake, both manufactured by Alpro. Muller make the official Wimbledon yoghurt. [...] Mrs Still, on her third trip to Wimbledon, said: "I think of it as an extension of the Nanny State: these days everybody has got to do what they are told."
Quite. The paper also reminds us of this little episode at the Soccer World Cup:
Three weeks ago thousands of Dutch football fans were forced to watch their team in their underpants at a World Cup match. The fans had been wearing patriotic orange lederhosen emblazoned with the name of Dutch beer Bavaria. Unfortunately for them Fifa — no doubt concerned for official tournament sponsor Budweiser — took umbrage and forced the fans to take the shorts off before they entered the stadium in Stuttgart.
Comments