In 1992, before the Premier League was established, footballers were a very different species. For starters, they weren’t millionaires. Instead, they drank in the same pubs as supporters and holidayed in the same places. Supporters could recognize themselves in these players because they were relatable, less media-trained, and, in some cases, a bit fat.
That very year, Micky Quinn turned out for Newcastle United against Grimsby. The moustachioed forward was often jeered for his burly physique. An opposition fan hurled a pie at Quinn. He promptly picked up and ate the improvised projectile. Like I said, relatable.
As money flowed into the game, characters like Quinn — the scorer of 235 career league goals — were pushed to the margins. The days of daily fried breakfasts and a dozen or so pints with the lads were over. Nutrition, conditioning, and “living the life” were what mattered. Footballers became health fanatics as they pushed the limits of performance to incredible levels.
I reminisce about all of this in light of the Professional Football Association’s new report on Snus in Professional Football, which aims to understand the “epidemic” of snus use among men and women in football.
PFA report on “snus”
Per the PFA report, about 1 in 5 footballers currently use snus or nicotine pouches. However, the headlines, including this one from the BBC, have mischaracterized it as snus only.
Now, the problem with conflating snus and nicotine pouches is that they are different products. Sure, they look similar, and they are both smoke-free, but some critical differences are:
- Snus is not legally available in the UK and most of Europe.
- Nicotine pouches do not contain tobacco.
Journalists using snus and nicotine pouches interchangeably has some advantages. As mentioned above, snus is not legal in the UK. However, we’re meant to believe that footballers forgo the convenience of buying nicotine pouches from a shop and instead seek out snus from black market channels.
I think it’s far more likely that these athletes are buying nicotine pouches, like the vast majority of users in the country. However, if you pretend that footballers are typically using snus, then you can introduce questionable research about snus to exaggerate the health effects of nicotine pouches.
To see how this works in action, let’s take this passage from the BBC article.
The study the BBC likely refers to is Smokeless tobacco use and risk of cancer of the pancreas and other organs. That study states a correlation between snus and pancreatic cancer. However, this paper, Use of moist oral snuff (snus) and pancreatic cancer: Pooled analysis of nine prospective observational studies, states:
“Compared to never-snus use, current snus use was not associated with risk of pancreatic cancer after adjustment for smoking.”
Another point to note about the pancreatic cancer links is that we should expect cases to be quite high among Swedes. After all, about 20% of Swedish men report daily snus use.
However, despite the widespread use of snus, Sweden does not make it into the top 10 countries with the highest per capita rates of pancreatic cancer, according to data from the World Cancer Research Fund.
Interestingly, when you break down the figures by sex, Swedish women appear #6 and #9 in pancreatic cancer cases and deaths worldwide. Famously, only about 4% of Swedish women use snus. Something doesn’t add up.
It seems that these claims made by the BBC might be overblown. But pick yourself up off the floor, because I’m not finished.
There is no evidence, even of the shaky variety, to link nicotine pouch use with cancer. So, if the paper doesn’t mix up the two, their worries about the danger of snus become very thin. Then, they’re stuck with misclassifying nicotine as an addiction (at best, it’s a dependence), or mother henning about withdrawal symptoms.
Final thoughts
The PFA report laments the fact that most footballers have not received education about snus use. What they really mean is indoctrination, because if you can’t accurately classify the difference between snus, nicotine pouches and chew bags, you can keep your education.
It’s possible this report doesn’t actually show ‘snus’ usage at all… just what it’s respondents think is ‘snus’ because that’s what they’ve been told or how it’s been missold. Read more about the differences here.
These young men and women are under a lot of pressure. They barely drink or smoke, their diets are controlled, they are drug tested regularly. If nicotine pouches provide them some release from the strains of professional football, then how big a deal is this?
