How does the World Cup’s viewership, tickets and attendance compare to the NFL’s Super Bowl?
Time to learn how to say "Cheers!" in 32 languages.
One soccer fan in England has gathered a beer from each of the 32 countries set to compete in the 2022 World Cup, which begins Sunday. And he's ready to raise a glass in honor of each.
"I drink them as something of a toast every time a team is knocked out or to celebrate their victory at the end,” Gus Hully, a 35-year-old from Bidford-On-Avon, Warwickshire, told the Daily Star.
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It's the second time Hully is holding his "World Cup of Beers" tournament, having first done so in 2018. He first got the idea after seeing someone online doing something similar. He thought he could do better and said, "Hold my beer!"
The only rules are that each beer must have been brewed in its native country and it cannot be consumed until the country has been eliminated or crowned champion. Hopefully Hully doesn't have to work the day after group play ends and the field of 32 teams is cut to 16.
Hully has been collecting lager and ale from across the world with the help of strangers since May, even managing to land beverages from countries where alcohol is restricted or banned. That includes the tournament's host-country Qatar, which banned the sale of beer at World Cup stadiums on Friday.
Not a problem for Hully, who has Qatar's non-alcoholic beer Fizzin Melon on tap.
"Qatar was definitely difficult considering they didn’t have a brewery in the country until late 2020,” Hully told inews. “I found out the [non-alcoholic beer] Fizzin had different cans available for sale in Qatar but wouldn’t ship outside of Qatar so I put out a tweet to see if anybody I knew happened to know somebody in Qatar but no luck.
“A month or two later I did the same which worked as my friend Dan said he knew a guy flying in from Qatar soon. Turns out his friend was more than happy to help, picked up a can on his next trip to his local supermarket, gave it to Dan on his visit to the UK who then gave it to me a week later. Easy.”
Other beers were not so easy, like Senegal’s La Gazelle.
To acquire one, he messaged those who rated the beer on the app "untappd" and...well, asked if they'd buy him a beer.
"I had a couple of months of nothing until this Russian bloke on holiday got back to me saying he was happy to help out, provided I paid for shipping which was absolutely no problem for me,” Hully told inews.
Shipping wasn't quite as easy for some beers due to Brexit rules that require customs checks, forcing Hully to have some sent to a friend in Germany who brought them over.
"It’s not easy to get them all in, some you have to put a little bit of legwork into,” Hully said.
Luckily, only one can or bottle of beer is needed from each country for Hully to make a toast.
"Thankfully I don’t have to order in bulk," he said. "I don’t have the space in my flat for that."
Here are the beers that Hully has from each country...
Argentina - Quilmes
Australia - Cooper's Red Ale
Belgium - Chimay Blue
Brazil - Antarctica
Cameroon - Beaufort Light
Canada - Moosehead
Costa Rica - Imperial
Croatia - Karlovacko
Denmark - FAXE
Ecuador - Pilsener
England - Camden Hells
France - Kronenbourg 1664
Germany - Spaten Oktoberfest
Ghana - Club
Iran - Istak
Japan - Hitachino Red Rice Ale
Mexico - Modelo
Morocco - Casablanca
Netherlands - Bavaria
Poland - Tyskie
Portugal - Super Bock
Qatar - Fizzin Melon
Saudi Arabia - Hillsburg Honey
Senegal - La Gazelle
Serbia - Lav
South Korea - Cass
Spain - Estrella Galicia
Switzerland - 1936
Tunisia - Celtia
Uruguay - Patricia
USA - Miller High Life
Wales - Bale Lager
