Cricket World Cup spectators beware! Closed-circuit television cameras may sniff you out and criminal courts penalise you if you wear T-shirts with logos of the wrong soft-drink company.
Amendments to the Merchandise Marks Act that Parliament recently passed, criminalise any ”ambush-marketing” techniques that rivals of the official sponsors might use.
The ploys include organising groups of spectators to wear T-shirts or wave banners with offending logos. Hoisting enemy ”blimps” over Cricket World Cup stadiums is also banned.
Regulations outlining the penalties are expected shortly.
Clifford Green, a lawyer for the Cricket World Cup, said any prosecutions would rest on establishing an intention to conduct a concerted campaign to flout sponsorship and supplier rights.
But even fans wearing clothing advertising the official sponsors’ rivals will not be admitted to stadiums unless they remove the offending items.
Anyone who slips through the body and bag searches with an offending T-shirt, cap or button, and is picked up by the closed-circuit cameras, will be told to remove the item by security guards.
Fans must read the conditions of entry to stadiums on their tickets, which ban all brands rivalling the official World Cup partners Pepsi and LG Electronics; the official sponsors Hero-Honda, SAA, Standard Bank and the mobile telephony company Hutchinson Max; and the official suppliers SABMiller and Toyota.
The ticket conditions also list items that are banned from stadiums, including braai equipment, bottles and umbrellas, cooler boxes, trumpets, drums, old South African flags and fireworks. Banners bigger than 1m by 1,5m are also outlawed.
New regulations are already in place to impose a R40000 fine or a two-year jail term under the Access to Public Premises and Vehicles Act for anyone contravening the stringent security measures.
Security arrangements, including liaison with the National Intelligence Agency to thwart threats of domestic or international terrorism, will be completed on December 18 after the security training pilot schemes have finished. By that time, the event organisers hope to have secured no-fly zones over stadiums.
But behaviour control will not be limited to hoi polloi. Ali Bacher, the organising committee’s CEO, has promised to send ”a polite, gentle letter” to holders of corporate suites at stadiums asking them to ensure that not only white faces are in evidence during the tournament.
The SABC has acquired all rights for the World Cup and has sold on the satellite broadcasts to Supersport. Forty-six World Cup games will be broadcast in all 11 official languages, either through regular updates or in ball-by-ball commentary on radio stations.