Major sports sponsorship is not for the weak of pocket. In the world of professional sports it takes money to play; in fact, in the world of supposedly amateur sports it takes lots of money to play.

On the professional level it takes tons.

So when Red Stripe announced last week that it was putting a potential $100 million into the national senior football programme it is not an outrageous amount. It is, however, ironic that this huge sponsorship of Jamaica's most popular sports team, depending, of course, on the results of the last game, should be done by a beer company.

Beer is not the healthiest thing in the world. Neither, for that matter, is rum, yet it is the Wray and Nephew Premier League. And it used to be the Craven A Premier League.

It is easy for those not involved in running the sports to make judgement calls about whether alcohol and cigarette companies should be allowed to sponsor major sporting events and teams. However, what it does point to is that most persons who watch sports do not actually care much about the health benefits.

The armchair sportsman is a legendary figure, one who knows everything about every sport, yet never plays any. It is these living room and sports bar sportsmen, who work their facial muscles only, who are the targets of the advertisers.

So we have the ironic situation of potentially unhealthy products being aligned with a sporting few in order to reach the sedentary many.

And then we say that sports promote a healthy lifestyle.

We do wish the Reggae Boyz all the best on their latest foray, but wonder how much boost in sales Red Stripe is anticipating from the sponsorship.