Paris 2024 Olympics: why alcohol will be allowed to VIPs and not to the general public

Will there be no alcohol in the stands of the 2024 Olympics? Yes, but not for everyone. Although the organizers of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games have chosen not to request an exemption from the Evin law by only serving non-alcoholic beverages in the public areas of competition venues, this will not be the case in VIP areas. . People who follow the events from the boxes will be able to consume “the very best selection of champagnes, spirits, wines, beers”, as the organizing committee explains in one of their online hospitality announcements on their website.

In principle, however, Evin’s law of 10 January 1991 is clear. “The sale and distribution of drinks from groups 2 to 5 (which include all alcoholic beverages) is prohibited in stadiums, gyms, gyms and in general in all institutions of physical culture and sports activities,” the text emphasizes. The Public Health Code, in its article L3335-4, allows derogation from this rule in the entire stadium or in the hall no more than ten times a year and within 48 hours, and with the permission of the mayor. decree.

“Restaurant” license in dressing rooms

A legal possibility explained by the organizers of the Rugby World Cup in France (September 8-October 28), but allowing spectators to be served only “drinks from the third group”: “wine, beer, cider, perry, mead, to which natural sweet wines are added, and also blackcurrant creams and fermented fruit or vegetable juices containing from 1.2 to 3 degrees of alcohol, liqueur wines, wine-based aperitifs and strawberry, raspberry, blackcurrant or cherry cordials containing not more than 18 degrees of alcohol. pure alcohol.

VIPs benefit from another legal ploy to enjoy the game of drinking, and a much more permanent one at that. Lodges usually obtain a “restaurant” or “catering” license. This makes it possible to serve all alcoholic beverages, without limiting the degree, to people in this part of the site. This allows the organizers of the 2024 Olympic Games to offer this offer to their elite clients.

This white area of ​​Evin’s law surprised then health minister Agnès Buzyn in 2019. When asked by BFMTV about this paradox, when she opposed MPs’ bill to reintroduce alcohol in stadiums, she assured that she would ignore it. opportunity. “If there is a question to be asked, it is about the exclusion of alcohol from the VIP boxes,” she jokingly replied to her interviewer Jean-Jacques Bourdin.

“When you belong to the good bourgeoisie, you have the right to drink”

This discrepancy between lodges and public space has already been pointed out by several elected officials. In 2018, Isère Senator Michel Savin (Les Républicains) sent a question to the Sports Ministry, pointing out the “accidental use on the premises” of drinking alcohol in the stadium. “Obtaining a small restaurant or restaurant license also allows you to permanently waive the ban on the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages on the premises. This is often the process used to open VIP lounges in stadiums,” the ministry told him.

“When you belong to the good bourgeoisie, you have the right to drink, and the lower classes do not have the right to afford beer,” Calvados PRG MP Alain Tourret protested in a 2015 article in L’Express. He introduced an amendment to the Growth and Activities Bill of Emmanuel Macron, then Economy Minister, allowing alcoholic beverages to be served below 3 degrees in sports arenas. He eventually withdrew it after seeing the National Assembly pass another amendment of it against the government’s advice.