Drogheda United chairman Conor Hoey has hit out at Dundalk and other League of Ireland clubs for accepting sponsorship from gambling companies.
Bohemians and Waterford had betting firms as shirt sponsors in recent years but no longer do, while Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers both had gambling companies as their main shirt sponsors this season.
The Drogs chairman revealed that they had an offer from a betting firm that was worth three times what they eventually settled for.
“To see Dundalk, who should be embracing mental health, being sponsored by a gambling company was crass, I know most of the Dundalk supporters agree with me, and I hope the new regime in Dundalk address that,” Hoey told LMFM.
“I am not anti-gambling, I have the odd bet but I don’t like how synonymous gambling and the Premier League have become, the amount of shirts in the Premier League with betting companies on the front, you see betting companies on all the ads on TV and I don’t want to see that coming into the League of Ireland.
“We see so many problems in Drogheda associated with gambling and as a club we have taken a strong stance on it, I’d love to see other clubs in the league equally adopt a strong stance on it, we are meant to be a league that looks after the community does the right thing.”
Hoey added: “We have been approached twice in the last year by major gambling and casino-type companies and both times the board has rejected the offers.
“Kids think gambling is football and football is gambling, that leads to addiction, it’s the association of gambling with football and that you can’t enjoy a sport without gambling, that’s the danger. As a league, what I’d like to see is for us to come together and take a stance next year.”
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