Wetherspoons is showing the World Cup in its pubs for the first time

Pub giant JD Wetherspoon has announced that it will be showing football matches from the World Cup in Qatar in a first for the business. However, there’s a catch for bargain-hunting football fans.

The operator has announced that most of its 850 pubs in the UK will be showing games from the World Cup – a first for Wetherspoons.

However, reports state that the pub chain is likely to stick to its usual principles of its TVs only displaying captions, rather than actually playing sound, during games.

The ultimate decision over whether to play the games with sound will rest with the manager of each ‘Spoons location, with the pub group said to be keen to cater for those who aren’t interested in the World Cup as well.

Spokesman for Wetherspoons, Eddie Gershon, commented on the move:

“Twenty years ago we’d have been the only pub group not showing World Cup matches. Then we had TV screens showing news inside but they are regular-sized tellies not big screens.

“Football isn’t massive for Wetherspoon’s but we are showing it this year as a certain amount of people want to watch it.

“There’s still space inside our pubs for people to go who aren’t interested. Most pubs only tend to have two TVs.”

He added, “As always the sound will be switched off for the games as there will be a lot of people who are not interested in watching the game or hearing the commentary.

“It will be up to the manager’s discretion if they wish to put the sound on.”

A small minority of Wetherspoons pubs will not be showing the World Cup matches, because they do not have TV screens.

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