Pub owner pleads with Gareth Southgate’s England to do him a favour at Euro 2024

Pubs need England to progress to the knockout stages of Euro 2024 to give their takings a real uplift, a landlord preparing for the football tournament has told the Express.

Brits will drink an estimated 300 million pints throughout the tournament, according to data from the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), filing bar tills to the tune of £1.4 billion.

But landlord Scott Illman, who owns The Magpie and Crown in Brentford, West London, said England needed to go far in the tournament for boozers to feel the benefit.

“Pretty please England, do well,” he told the Express, “We're ready, we've got screens up outside and bought the beer. [But] I just wonder with the cost of living being what it is how many people will be out for the group stage?

“We get about 10 to 15% uplift in beer because [although you sell more on match days] you get slightly less people on the Fridays and Saturdays.

“It makes a difference if they get further and if England do well we could show up to 5 or 6 games. The more excited people get, the more they want to come out.”

Illman explained that he was pleased to have a football tournament scheduled for the summer as the Qatar 2022 winter World Cup clashed with Christmas party season and therefore added less of an uplift to previous campaigns.

Kickoff times in Germany are far more conducive than they were during the Middle East competition for drinking Brits and Illman said England’s first game being against Serbia on Father’s Day could help draw in punters.

“I think you'll get quite a lot of dads out at lunchtime with their families and a lot will tell them ‘go to the football’ because it’s Father's Day.’

“The second game is Thursday at 5pm so the pubs in the city will have a cracking night,” he added, “considering that nobody goes into the office on a Friday anymore.”

Illman is hopeful of a repeat of Russia 2018 when England unexpectedly romped to the Semi-Finals and the nation headed to the pubs in ever-increasing numbers.

During that run to the final, it became customary for fans to throw beer around in celebration of every goal scored.

The trend was certainly beneficial for publicans like Illman who served twice as many drinks to the fans.

Not that the Magpie and Crown landlord ever understood launching a pint after a goal. “It’s madness” he laughed, “they get another round and don’t get as drunk.”

The boost in beer sales is in addition to the hospitality sector earning an extra £613.7 million and retailers benefiting by £2.1 billion from sales of televisions and sportswear, research by analysts GlobalData Retail for the website Vouchercodes found.

Temperatures for the tournament are expected to soar with a period of blistering heat forecast from England’s first game onwards.