The World Cup kicks off on Sunday with the glamorous first game of Qatar vs Ecuador.
Let’s face it, it’s hard to get excited about an event which we are all used to watching in June, so at least the organisers could have picked a better match to try to get us in the mood for a winter World Cup, and who thought giving England a 1pm kick-off time on a Monday was a good idea?
Who knows, perhaps this will turn out to be the greatest World Cup ever, but Qatar have already scored a few early own goals, such as allegedly paying people to become ‘fake’ supporters wear the colours of the different teams to get the atmosphere going.
Then there’s the food!
You can’t have failed to see the picture which went viral this week of the Greek salad being sold in the fan zone for £9.
It’s not so much the cost of said salad which was the problem, but what the salad consisted of. The most glaring thing was the iceberg lettuce. Now, we have all been to Greece quite a few times in our lives, but we have NEVER seen lettuce in a Greek salad. And let’s not get into the white onion, severe lack of tomato and apparently no feta cheese. We could go on but we then may need to lay down for a while in a darkened room.
If the Qatari Greek salad doesn’t do it for you, also available in the fan zone are dry nachos with a tiny amount of guacamole distilled from a plastic bottle, for £4.60; chicken quesadillas for £8 and a burger which, when combined with a pint, will set you back £25. All pretty uninspiring.
Whilst supporters who have travelled to Qatar may now be looking for alternative places to eat, the teams have come well prepared.
For instance, Argentina and Uruguay are bringing 4,000lbs of meat between them to the World Cup so players and staff can have a taste of home during the tournament.
The Spanish team, on the other hand, have not been able to bring their beloved Jamon Iberico because pork imports are banned in Qatar.
Food brands have also jumped on the bandwagon. Fast food chain Chipotle has pledged to give away 5,000 free entrees for every goal the USA team score during the tournament. Given they are in the same group as England, and with Harry Maguire very likely to be in the centre of defence, it looks like Chipotle will be cooking a lot of food!
Food and drink is expected to account for over £1 billion of retail sales as people watch the group stages of World Cup. This is down by £370 million compared to the 2018 tournament.
Smaller sums are forecast during the round of 16 (£273.3 million), quarter-finals (£182.5 million), semi-finals (£85.3 million) and the final match (£48 million).
This has been put down to the cost of living crisis and the expectation that England will only make it to the quarter-finals before being ousted by competition.
Quarter finals. Now that is optimistic!
About Jane Beesley
Development & Innovations Chef of SK Foods.
Your food. Our Passion.
