Cigarette sponsorship ban for sports to stay

2009/11/19

KUALA LUMPUR: The ban on cigarette sponsorship for sports activities, especially football, will not be withdrawn by the government, deputy minister of Youth and Sports Datuk Razali Ibrahim told the Dewan Rakyat today.
Razali said there will be no change in the government's commitment to support the World Health Organisation's (WHO) global ban on cigarette companies sponsoring any kind of sports activities under the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

He said Malaysia had signed the FCTC agreement on Sept 23, 2003 and became a member on Sept 16, 2005 and in line with the FCTC requirement, introduced a ruling to enforce laws under Regulations of Tobacco Products, effective Aug 14, 2004.

"However, an exception was given to football (till end 2004) and for motorsports (till 2006) to enable the sports to fulfill their contractual agreements and to look for alternative sponsorship.

"The two sports were given time to restructure their sponsorship deals so that it will not disrupt their plans. As such, the government has no plans to reverse the decision," said Razali when answering a question from Datuk Abd Rahman Dahlan (BN-Kota Belud) at the Dewan Rakyat here today.

Abdul Rahman had wanted to know if the government has any intention of withdrawing the ban on cigarette sponsorship because the standard of sports in the country had dropped drastically due to lack of funds.

Razali added that though the standard of football had dropped, it was not fair to label all other sports in the same category as a number of Malaysian athletes are ranked among the top 10 in the world.

"We have athletes who are ranked among the top 10 in 9 sports," he said.

Malaysian squash queen Datuk Nicol David is the women's world number one while Datuk Lee Chong Wei is the men's singles world number one in badminton. - Bernama