Two smoking-related reports from Wales today.

From BBC News:

Smoking on the touchlines at children's football matches is being banned by the Football Association of Wales

It is being phased in this month at under-12s games and will then be expanded to take in under-14s.

The report includes this response from me:

Simon Clark, director of smokers' lobby group Forest, said "smoking in the open air does not put anyone else's health at risk".

"This is virtue-signalling by the FAW and further evidence that the war on tobacco is now a moral crusade with unintended consequences for tolerance and moderation," he said.

"A genuine problem at children's football matches is pushy parents screaming abuse at referees."

The story was also picked up by the Guardian (Wales to ban smoking on sidelines of children's football), again with a quote from Forest.

The breakfast programme on BBC Radio Wales featured a short discussion with me and Suzanne Cass, director of ASH Wales, although we spent more time than I would have liked talking over one another.

Meanwhile ITV Wales reports that ‘Wales is set to become the first place in the UK to introduce new smoke-free restrictions for school grounds, hospital grounds, public playgrounds and outdoor children’s care settings.’

The report included this response from Forest:

"We don't condone smoking in playgrounds or play areas but some of these restrictions are unnecessarily restrictive and have nothing to do with health.

"Smoking in the open air does not put anyone else's health at risk, including children, and there is little evidence that the sight of non-family members smoking encourages children to smoke.

"Banning smoking in hospital grounds, in particular, demonstrates a shocking lack of compassion for adults for whom a cigarette can be a comfort at a stressful time. It discriminates against the elderly and the infirm who may find it difficult to walk off site to smoke.

"Most adults use their common sense when smoking in public spaces. Further anti-smoking measures are an indictment not of smokers but of a worryingly interventionist government."

Needless to say I've been getting bit of stick on social media where Forest has been described as "vile" while I am portrayed as defending the indefensible.

One or two have even accused me of promoting smoking around children,

On this issue I base my opinions on my own experience and having spent many years standing on the sidelines while my son played football and, later, rugby from the age of six to 18, I have to report that smoking was never an issue, even though it wasn't unusual for one or two coaches and parents to smoke before, during and after the game.

We were in the open air and you had to look hard to be aware of it. I doubt very much that the children took any notice. Like the rest of us, their focus was mostly on the game.

A problem far bigger than a few people smoking on the touchline was the abuse handed out to referees by parents.

I am ashamed to say that on one or two occasions I was not entirely innocent of such behaviour. If only I had been a smoker it may have had a calming influence!

I take issue too with the contention – put forward by advocates of a pitch side smoking ban – that children look up to and are influenced by their coaches.

That may be true of a very small number of coaches, but at the level most children play at the coach will almost certainly be the father of another member of the team, and the rest of the team will view them very much as they view their own fathers – and rarely in a good way.

In any case, why should volunteer coaches be put under pressure to be role models for other people's children?

Very few parents who volunteer to coach or manage a children's sports team know what they're doing (and I speak from experience having briefly managed my son's village cricket team).

They are basically glorified child minders.

That's not a criticism because, God knows, they deserve our thanks simply for volunteering and taking all the whispered asides and black looks from parents who think they could do a better job, but rarely put themselves forward.

Football has a particular problem with this type of parent because we all think we're an expert on football in way we don't with cricket or rugby.

My point is, it's a tough job being the coach of a children's football team. Without them, however, organised children's football wouldn't exist so why make the job even more unattractive by insisting they should be 'influencers'?

Funnily enough, I don't think it's coincidence that if there is a sport that bonds children (older teenagers in particular) with their coaches, it's rugby and the reason, I think, is this.

Rugby at every level above the age of eight or nine is a tough, physical sport. As the boys get older and develop physically it can become pretty brutal.

As a result of this, perhaps, rugby is also one of most sociable sports in the world. After a match players and coaches wind down and relax, usually in the clubhouse bar.

Even as an outsider – a parent who didn't play the sport and didn't drink in the bar after a game because I had to drive home – I could recognise the camaraderie.

One or two of my son's rugby coaches were smokers, and most enjoyed a drink.

It could be argued therefore that they were not good role models for the teenagers in their 'care', but I fundamentally disagree.

Not only were they volunteers, putting something back in to the local community (and how many of us can say that?), they helped introduce my son and his teammates to something far more important than a smoke free (sic) environment – real life.

And for that I am truly grateful.