Monday, April 30, 2012

The incredible soccer booze ban

Today Manchester City is hosting Manchester United in the English Premier League.  For the uninitiated, that's soccer.  Basically, the title likely hinges upon who wins this match between these two cross-town rivals.  It is a HUGE game, not only in England, but in all of worldwide professional soccer (I think I heard 650 million people will be watching).  But nowhere is it bigger than in the city of Manchester.  How big, you ask?

The city of Manchester is banning alcohol sales prior to the match

Can you imagine a Razorback game so freaking HUGE that the city of Little Rock would ban alcohol sales or consumption at the War Memorial Stadium golf course?  That's a scenario I simply cannot fathom.

And, on top of that, I was in Germany with my wife at the 2006 World Cup and partied with some English in Cologne.  Booze and English football go hand-in-glove.  I remember seeing media reports that the cities where the English were playing in were very literally running out of beer.  Like, the taps and kegs were running dry and the German tourism industry was kinda freaking out because they wanted to make sure there was enough beer for everyone else -- including themselves.  So, I guess my point is, the fact that Manchester has banned alcohol sales prior to the match is pretty freaking remarkable.

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