Fifa-fo-fum

No, it isn?t Centre for Science and Environment crusader for healthy living Sunita Narain who?s miffed with the organisers of the 2006 Fifa World Cup.

No, it isn’t Centre for Science and Environment crusader for healthy living Sunita Narain who’s miffed with the organisers of the 2006 Fifa World Cup for allowing ‘inappropriate sponsors’ like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s. It’s the prestigious British medical journal, The Lancet, that has criticised the world footballing body for letting billboards of aerated drinks, fried products and — horror of horrors — beer be displayed all along the sidelines of pitches during World Cup matches. And that’s not all. After being patted on the back by WHO in 2002 with an anti-tobacco award — for making the last World Cup tobacco-free — Fifa is even selling branded lighters and ashtrays at stadium kiosks in Germany.

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So does that explain the sluggishness that currently afflicts Brazilian star Ronaldo on the pitch? Apart from being voluble about his requirement to “being loved”, the footballer who plays club-level football for Parma Ham, er, sorry Real Madrid, could be distracted from the game at hand by the Budweiser placards. Healthy eating and sports have always had a tenuous relationship. Some theorists, for instance, link India’s inability to play the Beautiful Game with the shortage of red meat in the sporting Indian diet. Satta may be healthy, but somehow it hasn’t — barring wrestlers — been picked up as the health food of choice by our local footballers.

But it’s not only Fifa which is being thrown (healthy) pies for spreading bad eating habits. The US-based Centre for Science in the Public Interest is planning to sue fried chicken giant KFC for serving food cooked in trans-fat — a ‘deadlier’ form of fat that reportedly pumps out chemicals that are linked to diabetes and heart disease. And, of course, couch potatoes following the World Cup and the exploits of their rotund hero, Ronaldo, on TV.