JAMAICA’S National Council on Drug Abuse says that it will oppose a five-year sponsorship deal by the rum company J Wray & Nephew for Jamaican football, arguing that it could help to undermine its efforts to fight substance abuse in the island.

“Our data shows that alcohol is number one on the list of abused substances, so we will have to mount a direct response to this as it will only undermine our efforts to reduce this problem,” said Ellen Campbell-Grizzle, the NCDA’s director of information research.

She, however, did not say what form the agency response would take.

Wray & Nephew, Jamaica’s biggest distillers and bottlers of spirits, Monday announced a $100-million sponsorship deal with the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), for the National Premier League — the top soccer competition.

The deal ended a 29 year-old relationship between the NPL and the Carreras Group’s subsidiary, the Cigarette Company of Jamaica which used to sponsor the competition through its ‘Craven A’ brand of cigarettes.

Wray & Nephew will use its White Overproof Rum as the brand to carry the sponsorship. But apparently anticipating the critics, Wray & Nephew says that it will work out with the JFF an approach to the sponsorship that would not undermine social responsibilities.

“Rest assured that we intend to be responsible brand builders,” chief marketing officer, Carl Stephenson, told the Observer yesterday. “We will not do anything to contravene the moral responsibilities to Jamaica.”

Craven A’s departure as the sponsor of Jamaica’s top domestic soccer tournament was welcomed by the Pan American Health Organisation’s (PAHO) representative in Jamaica, Dr Manuel Pena. “Sport is one of the most important things to attract young people and our organisation has an established position that the use of the proceeds of tobacco and weapons are not to be used to promote sports,” Pena said yesterday.

But PAHO has “no position on alcohol”, he noted.

At a personal level, however, Pena did not welcome the Wray & Nephew sponsorship.

“I don’t like to see that sort of sponsoring, even though there is no legal ban on it,” he said.