COMPLAINING about the saturation of advertising at a major tournament is like going to a gig and saying the music is too loud – one thing tends to follow the other.

If you have ever spent time in the host city of an Olympic or Commonwealth Games, the Euros, a World Cup or any sporting event where the world’s eyes will be fixed, the chances are you’ll have seen the landscape branded up to the nines to satisfy the sponsors who are effectively paying for all of it to go ahead.

We may be entering into an era, however, where those competing in the events are starting to be more selective about the products they endorse for the greater good of the tournament, and those they do not.

Take Cristiano Ronaldo, for example. The Portugal GOAT scowled at the sight of two bottles of Coca Cola on his press conference table a few days ago, grabbed the offending articles and put them on the floor, saying people should drink water instead.

Estimates say that action alone momentarily wiped FOUR BILLION pounds off the company’s share price.

Leaving aside Ronaldo’s many, many endorsements, which have in the past included Coca Cola by the way, this situation does open a potentially dangerous door.

You probably don’t get to Ronaldo’s God-like status in football by drinking too many carbonated drinks (although I am sure Usain Bolt, the fastest man alive, gobbled regular Chicken McNuggets as a matter of course). But whilst on international duty he is representing his country who, presumably, are also getting a slice of the sponsorship monies as part of their tournament fees.

France star Paul Pogba did the same to a bottle of Heineken beer at a press conference following France’s 3-0 win against Hungary on Tuesday evening.

As a practising Muslim, Pogba had more justifiable cause, albeit the particular drink in question was alcohol-free.

Some have viewed the actions as disrespectful, some as mere attention-grabbing, and others like myself wonder whether we are coming to the stage where products and companies deemed ‘unhealthy’ by the masses may no longer be able to sponsor such events?

The grip gambling firms has on football has been a topic of huge debate and we have now moved on from the days where tobacco companies and alcohol brands adorned just about every sporting jersey in the UK. Is this the next step, or are we starting to get a bit too sanctimonious when it comes to sponsorship?

Going back to Ronaldo for a moment, it is worth looking at some of his back catalogue of adverts as he grew his global image. One, for a Singapore shopping app called Shopee, is must-see viewing.

Getting the seal of approval from his hundreds of millions of social media followers is worth massive money but presumably his agent did not float the script of that particular advert past him before filming.

The best bit of advertising at Euro 2020 so far? Volkswagen.

Absolutely anybody who watched the opening game between Italy and Turkey took two things from that game: 1. Andrea Bocelli is flipping marvellous, and 2. I want that tiny car to deliver the ball to every game in the tournament.

Sadly, we have seen no sight nor sound of the teeny vehicle ever since.

How great would it be if players waiting to take a penalty in a shoot-out had to wait for the ball to be served up by a remote-control toy?

I can only assume it is now on its way from Rome to Wembley Stadium for the final and is now somewhere on the E45 just outside Bologna.

Worst bit of advertising? Greenpeace.

What were they thinking having a parachutist drop into the Allianz Arena before kick-off?

Anyone who has seen a game of televised football knows that the skies above the pitch are laced with camera wires to allow overhead views of the game – and though several people were hurt after debris shot off into the crowd, including France boss Didier Deschamps, thankfully nobody was seriously hurt.