Smoking in association football
[2] Following the Second World War, a number of high-profile players such as Jack Charlton, Johan Cruyff, Preben Elkjær[6] and Sócrates continued to smoke.
In 1985, following the Bradford City stadium fire which was attributed to a discarded cigarette setting accumulated litter alight, The Football Association banned smoking in all wooden stands in England.
[11] In 2003 UEFA announced that during European competitions from the 2004–05 season, smoking would be banned from the touchline and technical areas but would be allowed inside the dressing room where local laws permitted.
In 2005, Everton announced that Goodison Park would become a no-smoking stadium with a total ban on smoking anywhere in the ground, the first in England.
[23] Brazil passed a similar law excluding football stadiums from stricter smoking restrictions in 2014.
Having been photographed while smoking watching a Galatasaray versus Gaziantepspor game at the Türk Telekom Arena, Bilic was told that a further transgression would result in a fine.
In 2004, Joey Barton stubbed out a cigar in the eye of his Manchester City teammate Jamie Tandy and was sued successfully for £65,000.
[30] The French player Zinedine Zidane was hired by the European Union to front their anti-smoking campaign in 2002 but was later seen in 2006 smoking.
[33] The Germany national football team manager Joachim Löw received criticism from the German press after being filmed smoking in a spectator box for the UEFA Euro 2008 quarter-final when he was serving a touchline ban.
"[34] The Danish striker Nicklas Bendtner attested that on his first day at Juventus in Italy, he found his teammates Gianluigi Buffon and Andrea Pirlo smoking in a toilet.
[40] In 2004, Sócrates pulled out of a match after 20 minutes whilst playing for the English non-league Garforth Town on the grounds that he had smoked too many cigarettes in order to continue.
[41] Days before his death in 2020, Argentine striker Diego Maradona was filmed smoking in a drunken state.
