32million set to be glued to the box for England match
Record telly audience... and they’ll sink 38m pints of beer!
‘I was one of those fans not too long ago’ ‘Hopefully success for both of us’
A MASSIVE TV audience of 32million are expected to watch England clash with Sweden this weekend in the World Cup quarter final, with more than a million Scots likely to tune in.
Large parts of the country are expected to come to a standstill today with the biggest TV audience in living memory gearing up to watch the 3pm match with Sweden at home, in pubs and on dozens of big screens around the nation.
It is thought even more Scotland fans will take in the quarter final than switched on for England’s penalty shoot-out win against Colombia on Tuesday, which reached well over 900,000 – though no figures have been released for who the Tartan Army will be supporting!
England’s victories so far in Russia have sparked scenes of wild celebration down south and captain Harry Kane, 24, yesterday said he hoped the team will provide another cause for jubilation today as the ‘Three Lions’ attempt to reach their first World Cup semi-final for 28 years.
Kane said: ‘After the games we always see the videos going round on social media. I was one of those fans not too long ago getting drinks thrown over him, jumping about, going wild. It’s what we want, we set out to make the country proud and we feel like we’ve done that so far.
‘We want to keep seeing those videos, hopefully we can do the same tomorrow and we’ll see a few more.
‘It’s about bringing the whole country together and to see them enjoying it like they are is fantastic for us.’
Weathermen predict it could be the hottest day of the year in parts of England while Scotland will continue to enjoy scorching sunshine, albeit less intense.
Temperatures in parts of the UK will edge above 33C (91F) in the afternoon as crowds flock to outdoor big screens in cities including London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Bristol, Exeter and Leeds.
To help keep cool – or steady the nerves – 38 million pints of beer are set to be drunk by supporters as the latest chapter in captain Kane and the team’s Russian adventure triggers a £190million big-game drink and food spree.
It will be a great boost for the economy after a poor start to the year when the ‘Beast from the East’ weather system kept people indoors.
Some 18million pints are expected to be downed in pubs 7million more than usual – with pub takings soaring to £100million, as a predicted 3.5million fans pack the country’s 40,000 pubs to watch the match.
At home, 20million pints are expected to be drunk today, costing around £22million, the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) said.
Food spending on the match will add up to another £30million in pubs and £40million at home.
With so many watching the match, roads, high streets and train stations south of the Border are likely to be empty during the quarter-final, which will be shown live on BBC1. The RAC said that it expects ‘the quietest Saturday afternoon of the year, with deserted roads’. But the match has caused a headache for Wimbledon.
The tennis tournament’s bosses face a potential scheduling nightmare as they try to work out a slot for the last remaining British player Kyle Edmund’s third-round match against Novak Djokovic. Edmunds, who is desperate that the England game will not clash with the biggest match of his Wimbledon career, said of the tennis scheduling: ‘I don’t know who does it, but I am sure they will factor it in.
‘I don’t mind either way, obviously I am a tennis player, so I am here to do my job first.
‘Hopefully it will be a success for both of us, England and myself.’
One solution would be to start Edmund’s match at 5.30pm, by when the England v Sweden game should be over, even if it goes to penalties.
The England match will also have a knock-on effect for the British Summer Time music festival in London’s Hyde Park – where rock group Editors’ performance is set to clash with the England game.
The Editors’ frontman Tom Smith yesterday said he expects many fans will not turn up for the music until after the final whistle.
‘It is what it is... Someone was gonna get f ***** , and that someone is us,’ he said.
Festival director Jim King said it would be wrong to halt performances to show the football ‘as people paid a lot of money to come and see all of those bands’. The Cure headline the event tonight.