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4 June 2010 Why Fabio’s camp will be booze free

England’s World Cup preparations under Fabio Capello are somewhat more sophisticated than they have been in the past. The manager has slapped a zero tolerance alcohol ban on his players for as long as their feet remain on South African soil. A stance that shows just how far the sport has come in the years since the Euro ‘96 team decided a dentist chair and several bottles of Tequila were the best way to prepare for the first major tournament on British soil for 30 years.

In fact, give or take a few well publicised misdemeanours, the last decade or so has seen football finally shake its booze soaked reputation.

Although he won’t be at the World Cup, Premier league and former England U21 defender, Andy Griffin believes there has been a definite change in the professional game.

“It’s not like it used to be 10 or 20 years ago when you’d hear stories about players drinking whiskey at half time. I don’t think there is a drinking culture with footballers anymore.

“We know that to be a professional footballer, you can’t be drinking huge amounts of alcohol. You won’t be as fit for training in the morning because you’re dehydrated and there’ll be others waiting to take your place.”

Alcohol can have a substantial impact on athletic performance, which is why top managers like Capello take a hard line stance on their players’ drinking. The modern game places a far greater emphasis on sports science. Footballers today are finely tuned athletes and every bite of food and sip of fluid is calculated to increase performance.

As Griffin indicated, it wasn’t always like this. Paul Canoville played for Chelsea in the 1980s and recently won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award for 2008 for his autobiography Black and Blue. He remembers how things used to be.

“I don’t drink much but others did to chill out after a game,” says Paul. “Being a professional footballer, there’s lots of pressure. You have to look after yourself; but you have a lot of free time on your hands.

“I had a drug problem but I’ve talked about it and sorted it out. People like Paul Merson and Tony Adams talked about their drink problems and have tried to sort them out too.”

Peter Kay is chief executive at Sporting Chance, the charity former England captain, Tony Adams, set up to help sportspeople, professionals and amateurs, overcome drink and other “destructive behaviour” problems. He puts the turnaround down to a number of factors. Firstly, the magnitude of foreign players in British clubs who come from cultures where drinking is not so much a part of society. Secondly, he says it’s down to managers like Manchester United’s Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger. They invest time in their players, especially the young ones, providing them with boundaries and grounding. “They have a fatherly energy,” says Peter.

Finally, Peter says it’s helped that players like Tony Adams have talked about their problems with drink: “Players know the effects of drinking too much – they won’t do as well or they’ll simply stop playing.”

Keep track of the units and calories in the alcohol you're drinking over the World Cup by using our drink diary.

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Drinkaware advises men not to regularly drink more than 3–4 units of alcohol a day.