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Purpose: The purpose of the study was to gain insight into fans' perceptions, attitudes and behavioural responses toward their favourite college football team in the context of a new beer sponsorship agreement. Specifically, the chapter examines differences in fans' attitudes and behaviours based on their gender, team identification and drinking habits.

Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative, cross-sectional survey design was employed. The sample was comprised of Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) workers who self-identified as college football fans. A hypothetical scenario was used as a manipulation, whereby participants were asked to imagine their favourite college football team had entered into a new alcohol sponsorship agreement while completing a questionnaire.

Findings: Highly identified fans exhibited more positive attitudes and behaviours after being presented with the hypothetical scenario than less identified fans. In terms of gender, female fans had increased attitudes toward sponsorship compared to males, and highly identified females had the most positive attitudes and behavioural intentions toward their favourite teams of any of the four subgroups in the study.

Research limitations/implications: The small sample sizes of some fan subgroups affected statistical power, which may have led to falsely insignificant findings. The range of favourite teams among the participants (50 universities) meant there was likely a high degree of variation between fans' previous experiences with beer/alcohol at college sport venues.

Originality/value: The study offers valuable insight into the intersection of sport fandom and gender in the context of alcohol sponsorship in US college sport, and is also among the first investigations of the effects of team identification on perceptions toward alcohol sponsorship.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to describe the current situation regarding alcohol use and consumption in relation with sport in France.

Design/methodology/approach – Based on a literature review, the authors describe the particular regulatory French context regarding alcohol sales, publicity and consumption around sport and analyze the relationships between alcohol and sport participation, and sporting events.

Findings – Despite an apparent strict legal frame, exemptions, margins of manoeuvre and non-applications of the law portray the situation as more complex than it appears. As for sport participation, if the myth of ascetic sportsmen and sportswomen is not supported, the use and consumption profiles are not clear-cut depending on numerous factors such as age, gender, socio-economic status, intensity and level of sport participation, club membership and more importantly sport subcultures. However, in many cases, strong links with masculinity, as found in the literature, were observed. As for sporting events, the current situation regarding the bans on alcohol sales and sport sponsorship seems again more complex than the law suggests and appears to be continuously contested by stakeholders with different, but often convergent expectations.

Research limitations/implications – The results demonstrate a need to go deeper than visible and official appearances to properly understand the complex relationships between sport and alcohol in France. Particularly, and considering the lack of specific research and evidence regarding the situation, the current public debates regarding the situation cannot be properly informed and are thus strongly influenced by various stakeholders and lobbies, constituting an unsettled field.

Purpose – The aim of the chapter is to understand why, in a country that has such strict government alcohol policies, sport is allowed – and allows itself – to be associated with, and source income from, alcohol consumption.

Design/methodology/approach – The analysis builds on previous research on the government–sport relationship in Sweden, and on documents produced by the government and sport.

Findings – The chapter shows how a close and long-standing relationship between the government and sport has created a ‘drinking problem’ for sport, and that this is nurtured by the government through its actions vis-à-vis sport in matters related to alcohol. These actions are at odds with the overall aim of Swedish alcohol policy, and distinctive from the government's actions vis-à-vis actors outside the realm of sport but aligned with government sport policy and the long-standing government–sport relationship. In that sense, the association between sport and alcohol has less to do with alcohol than with the mutual dependence between the government and sport, and with both parties' interest in maintaining common agreements and good faith. In addition to providing these tentative explanations, it is suggested that ‘the politics of forwarding’ is one of the systemic effects that follow from the particularities of the Swedish government-sport-alcohol nexus.

Research limitations/implications – Research from other contexts is needed as the chapter is only a first tentative step in uncovering the government's role in the sport–alcohol link in countries with sport systems that are characterized by a combination of extensive public support to sport and an autonomous member-based sport system.

To outline the paradoxes and contradictions inherent in debates about sport, alcohol, and addiction. It appears that a growing number of sportspeople suffer from addiction to alcohol and other drugs while at the same time alcohol use is widely sanctioned and celebrated in sport. The high-profile falls from grace are a public display of a more insidious, problematic relationship to drugs and alcohol in sport, yet cultural change is often difficult given long standing associations between sport and alcohol.

In the first part of the chapter, the key themes in the drugs, alcohol, and sport debate (notably health and ethics) are discussed. In the second part, some of the relationships between sport and alcohol, such as sponsorship and the cultural sanctioning of particular forms of drinking and masculine identities are examined. In the third, the issues of drug and alcohol addiction and recovery, and the implications for sport and sporting identities are discussed.

The chapter reveals the tensions that underpin the social contexts of drug and alcohol use and misuse in sport. The chapter suggests that a recalibration of popular understandings of masculinity in sport may provide a safe space through which to share battles with alcohol and addiction.

Discussion of the paradoxes and contradictions inherent in the relationships between sport and alcohol have important implications for a discussion and analysis of addiction and alcohol in sport, and for sport and social policy, health promotion, and social care more broadly.

Purpose – To offer a thought-provoking reflection of my experiences ‘in the field’ at alcohol-infused sporting events. This chapter, in effect, is a piece of qualitative research on the ‘doing’ of quantitative survey research. This chapter provides important insights into the politics of collecting and representing data and the social boundaries within which those data are collected.

Design/methodology/approach – Between September 2011 and February 2012, I embarked on data collection for a research project that investigated the culture of alcohol promotion and consumption at major sport events in New Zealand. Specifically, I was interested in examining the public spaces where alcohol was promoted and where people consumed alcohol as part of the overall entertainment experience of sport mega-events. The discussion in this chapter presents an overview of the politics and performances of in-field research.

Findings – I discuss particular cultural, conceptual, methodological and ethical quandaries that coincide with undertaking such research. In doing so, I consider the situational standpoint, positional paradox and behavioural bind of my research experience.

Research Implications – This chapter contributes to the on-going scholarly dialogue that details the complexities of research management and strategies for studies exploring the sport-alcohol nexus, which will be of benefit to current and future qualitative researchers in their preparation to conduct fieldwork about sport and alcohol.

Limitations – The reflections offer details about the culture at specific events and scholars should be cautious of the extent to which they can be generalized from one alcohol-infused sport event to the next.

Purpose – To outline the arguments and consequent legislation that prohibited and then allowed alcohol consumption by fans in Brazilian sports arenas since 1996.

Design/methodology/approach – We present the social and political debates regarding alcohol consumption by sports fans having the Brazilian legislation as a starting point and using the multiple streams framework (Kingdon, 1995). We identify the problems, policies and politics streams on three phases: the prohibition of sale and consumption of alcohol in sport stadiums, the exceptional allowance for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and its consequences on state laws five years after the 2014 event.

Findings – Violence among football supporters was the focal event to approve laws prohibiting alcohol consumption in sports arenas. For the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the sport governing body demanded the opposite, so Brazil and some states approved an exception to their laws. Since then, states see an opportunity to allow the sale and consumption of alcohol in and around the stadiums, questioning the relationship between alcohol and violence. These state laws are under examination by the Supreme Court because they may counteract a national law.

Research limitations/implications – Public safety is the key justification to uphold the laws, but a lack of empirical data and research delimit the arguments on how beneficial alcohol prohibition is to suppress supporters' violence. Lawmakers and groups of interest may also include beer industry lobbying strategies and health-related issues as relevant variables in the debate, although they are not discussed in this chapter.