Bar owners rue England's absence

With less than a week to go before the referee's whistle marks the start of the Euro 2008 football tournament, pub owners are busy stocking their fridges with beer.

But even as they hook the kegs to the taps and clean the beer lines, the absence of England in the tournament weighs heavily on their minds.

With their reputation as enthusiastic beer drinkers, the British have earned a cosy place in the heart of many a pub owner who knows they will be downing the pints when the going gets tough for their team.

This is why pub owners' hearts sunk in unison when none of the British teams made it to the tournament.

Both The Dubliner bar owner Carl Vassallo and Rookie's co-owner Chris Ciappara believe that beer consumption would have been much higher had the Brits been taking to the football ground.

"The greatest amount of beer is normally drunk when British teams are playing," Mr Ciappara said, although Rookie's will be adding another big screen in anticipation of the 23-day tournament.

Robert Agius, one of the owners of Ryan's Pub, shares the same belief. "There will be less enthusiasm among the British supporters; when England teams play there is always a huge amount of anticipation pushing people to drink more."

Beer consumption triples during football leagues, Mr Agius said, although he added that the intake of other drinks goes down.

"English teams have the best support in the world... and the British are also renowned to be heavy drinkers," Stephen Ellul, the marketing manager at Heineken's local importer Charles Grech, said.

But both Farsons chief marketing officer Ray Grech and Portside owner Ivan Camilleri think England's absence will not make such a big difference. "People still enjoy these football festivals and we feel the following will still be high. Football supporters will not lose interest simply because British teams have not made the list," Mr Grech believed.

Mr Camilleri said although the England supporters were the most prolific beer drinkers, they were not the only ones who enjoyed a pint.

Even those pub owners who were expecting beer consumption to be down due to England's absence were stocking up their fridges.

The Dubliner is banking on the increasing number of Swedish supporters, Rookie's is hoping England supporters will root for other teams and Ryan's is optimistic because support for Italian teams is also strong in Malta.

However, according to a number of pub owners, the Italian supporters tend to choose spirits over beer, which begs the question: Who will win the battle of the booze?