Euro 2008: Adopt a team
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Our football teams couldn't beat many people during the qualifying games for the European Championships, so this old adage may come in useful this summer if you want to pull in the footie fans.
Many pubs will look to adopt a team for the tournament and get their customers following a particular country in their pub. Here's some questions to ask yourself when choosing a team to adopt:
Are there large populations of people from participating countries in your area?
You can get free information on the types of people in your area, including their country of birth, from demographics websites such as www.upmystreet.com
The Office for National Statistics says that - based on the last Census, conducted in 2001 - there were 266,138 people born in Germany resident in the UK, 95,060 from France, 107,242 from Italy, 40,441 from The Netherlands and 36,556 from Portugal. Since then, immigrant numbers have boomed (as any copy of the lovely Daily Mail will confirm), with Poles seemingly especially keen to live in the UK.
Are there any high-profile foreign players in your local Premier League team?
Your football fans could form allegiances to teams containing their heroes who they watch playing for English clubs every Saturday.
Football fans from the red half of North London may be interested in the progress of Arsenal's Philippe Senderos in the Switzerland team; scousers may want to see how Everton's Nuno Valente gets on in a Portugal shirt and Manchester United fans may be keen to see goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar stopping the shots for the Netherlands. In the Midlands, Swedish player Olof Mellberg was such a favourite during his time at Aston Villa that fans designated his last game for the club this season 'Olof Mellberg Day'.
Can you theme your pub around the world beers you stock?
Even if your fridges are full of mainstream lagers, they could provide an excuse to nominate your pub as supporting one particular country.If you have San Miguel on the bar and offer bottles of Estrella Damm, there's your reason for supporting Spain, for example.
Can you think of any promotions to ally your punters with a particular team?
Rick Robinson, licensee of the Willoughby Arms in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, is one who has.
Rick has come up with a scheme that involves giving out cards at random with the names of three Euro 2008 countries on them. The customer receiving the card will be encouraged to come to watch those countries' games in the Willoughby Arms. If the teams progress through the rounds of the tournament, the customer accumulates points which can be redeemed for beer at the bar.
