Premier League Footballers hooked on Snus

A new survey conducted by Loughborough University for the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) reveals that it’s not just naive school kids who are falling for the phoney allure pitched by the modern-day “makeover marketing” from the nicotine industry.

It’s highly paid professional footballers, too.

What does the study indicate?

Nearly one in five male professional footballers are using snus, nicotine pouches, or both, and nearly half wish to quit snus within a year.

The study, which is the first to specifically examine snus use in football, surveyed 628 male players from Premier League and EFL clubs, and 51 Women’s Super League (WSL) players.

Among male players, 18% currently use snus, while 42% have tried it. Female players reported slightly higher figures, with 22% currently using snus and 39% having tried it.

Despite these numbers, it’s believed that the actual usage may be higher due to underreporting.

Many of the players want to quit nicotine

Nearly half (48%) of the male users expressed a desire to quit using snus within the next 12 months, compared to just 9% of female users.

Snus, a tobacco product in a sachet placed under the lip, releases nicotine into the bloodstream. Though illegal to sell in the UK, it is not illegal to use, while tobacco-free nicotine pouches are legal. Most players reportedly use nicotine pouches but refer to them as ‘snus’.

What do players think they get out of nicotine use?

Players claim that they experience improved mental readiness and relaxation as a result of using snus or pouches.

Yet they also indicate that usage peaks after training and matches. It seems contradictory, doesn’t it?

Surely, they want to experience mental readiness during training or matches – not afterwards. And how does being “mentally ready” occur at the same time as “relaxation”? Can you really be chilled out and relaxed at the same time as you are focused and “ready to go”?

Players also claim that they use nicotine as an appetite suppressant or to fit in socially with teammates.

The excuses for nicotine use are the same tired old ones that smokers have been using for decades. They genuinely believe their claims, but have simply been fooled by a drug to which they have become addicted.

Footballers are being sold a dummy!

Some footballers believe nicotine can help enhance their performance in the same way they believe that caffeine can. In both cases, they are entirely mistaken. The belief that the drugs can improve their reaction time and focus is bogus.

No profession requires maximum reaction times and focus more than air force fighter pilots. Yet, military boffins do not suggest that pilots use nicotine or caffeine in an attempt to improve their performance.

To do so would distort the naturally occurring and finely honed reaction times and mental acuity for which they were selected ahead of thousands of other candidates.

The only pilots who use nicotine are those who are incapable of flying without it.

The only pilots who are incapable of flying without it are nicotine addicts.

As it happens, these pilots are also incapable of relaxing, socialising, handling stress, or concentrating without nicotine…because they are nicotine addicts.

It doesn’t sound much like an advert for the drug, does it?

The truth is that nicotine addiction creates an uptight, anxious, insecure feeling. When another dose of the drug is taken, all it does is provide a momentary relief from that uncomfortable feeling.

This is how perfectly intelligent human beings are conned into believing that nicotine does something positive for them. They mistake momentary relief from the uncomfortable feeling that the drug created within them for the drug making them feel more relaxed, better able to socialise, less stressed, and better able to concentrate when they take it again.

It’s like wearing tight shoes just for the sake of removing them.

Nicotine doesn’t make you more alert it makes you less alert, it doesn’t help reaction times it hinders them.

The health risks of snus and pouches

As well as having a negative impact on athletic performance and every aspect of their lives, snus and pouches also increase the user’s risk of oesophagus and pancreatic cancer, cardiovascular disease, and mouth lesions.

Over half of the male users (53%) and almost three-quarters of the female users (73%) reported nicotine dependence, experiencing cravings and withdrawal symptoms like anxiety and irritability.

John Dicey, Global CEO, Allen Carr’s Easyway comments,

“It’s frustrating that even the doctors involved in this study continue to perpetuate the myths and illusions that surround nicotine use. They claim that players are using the drug “to relax and manage stress” whereas it would be more accurate to say that they use it in the mistaken belief that it will help them to relax and manage stress, and that actually, it achieves the opposite effect.

It’s really important that adults and youngsters alike begin to understand the trick that nicotine addiction plays on its victims. If they understand that, it will go a long way toward them brushing aside any future temptation to take the drug”.

Further reading

• Read the BBC Sport report
• Read the PFA and Loughborough University report & study
• Allen Carr’s Easyway to Quit Smoking and Vaping is equally as effective for snus and pouch addicts as it is for smokers and vapers.