Last-minute ways to prepare your small business for the FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup 2026 is set to be the biggest and longest tournament in football’s history, featuring 104 games and spanning nearly 40 days. After months of build-up and all the thrilling qualifiers, you’ve suddenly realised you’ve not got anything planned for the biggest event of the summer that’s just around the corner.   

In this article, we’ll focus on tips for small businesses in hospitality, such as pubs, and service industry businesses like cleaners. Some ideas will be relevant for other sectors though, so it’s worth seeing if you can incorporate any of these into your small business.

When do England and Scotland play?

As the tournament is being held in the USA, Canada and Mexico, there won’t be any afternoon games for UK-based audiences to contend with. Instead, games tend to kick off in the evening with some starting in the very early hours (GMT).

We’ve singled out England and Scotland, as well as the semi-finals and final (hopefully both can make it to that stage!).

If you want to know the full tournament schedule, head over to BBC Sport. Once it’s clear who’s qualified to the later stages we’ll update the article.

England:

• Wednesday 17 June, 9pm – Croatia
• Tuesday 23 June, 9pm – Ghana
• Saturday 27 June, 10pm – Panama

Scotland:

• Sunday 14 June, 2am – Haiti
• Friday 19 June, 11pm – Morocco
• Wednesday 24 June, 11pm – Brazil

Semi-finals:

• Tuesday 14 July, 8pm
• Wednesday 15 July, 8pm

Final:

With these dates in mind, let’s see how you can prepare your small business for the FIFA World Cup 2026.

Tips for pubs and cafés

Buy flags

Get into the spirit of the tournament by hanging flags of all the participating nations around your café or restaurant. These could be as bunting or individual flags on tables.

‘This vs That’ tips jar

Research has shown that 70% of tips come from cash, so why not make it fun for your customers?

If England or Scotland are playing, you could ask the question ‘Do you think England/Scotland will win tonight?’ with two jars out, one ‘yes’, one ‘no’. Or if you only have one tips jar, ‘Tip if you want England to win/lose tonight’.

If you posed a question, you could post the results on social media as a percentage of total tips.

For example, if you made £100 in tips, with £90 in ‘yes,’ Scotland will win and £10 in ‘no’, you could say ‘90% of our customers think Scotland will win tonight!’

Consider your opening hours

During the 2018 World Cup, it was estimated that over 40 million extra pints of beer were sold in English pubs, and the British Beer & Pub Association predicts that if England make it to the final this year, pubs could see a £275 million boost in revenue – so it’s worth knowing when you can stay open longer.

Pubs in England and Wales can extend their opening hours for days when there is an England or Scotland knock-out match.

• If kick-off is between 5pm and 9pm then pubs can stay open until 1am.
• If kick-off is between 9pm and 10pm then pubs can stay open until 2am.

It’s a bit more tricky for pubs in Scotland. Alcohol licensing is a devolved issue in Scotland decided by individual localities. Check with your local council for their decision.  

Partner with local sports clubs

A lot of people will watch the World Cup with their friends and family at a local sports club they’re affiliated with, which often acts as a private sports bar. Some will have attached kitchens and staff, but most won’t.

If you run a café or restaurant with a takeaway component, consider reaching out to a local sports club to see if they would be interested in you catering the big matches.

Cricket clubs are likely to be a good match as mid-week training sessions and Saturday league matches will coincide with early evening fixtures.

Offer dishes and drinks of competing countries

This might test out your culinary skills, but having limited-time dishes can increase foot traffic to your pub or café.  

It may be best to avoid anything which would require a lot of effort or ingredients that you don’t usually buy, just in case interest is low.

We’ll leave the ideas to the professionals.

Create discounts

You could make an offer dependent on the outcome of the game, such as ‘Happy Hour if England win’, or create special, discounted combos available only before kick-off, like two pints and a plate of chips.

Service industry

It’s not just pubs and restaurants that can get a boost in revenue from the World Cup.

Dog walkers and cleaners can find themselves in high demand during the tournament, albeit for different reasons.

Dog walkers

With the matches on in the evenings, and many people heading to pubs to watch the games, dog walkers may get more interest from owners who don’t want to worry about their pooch getting overwhelmed.

If you’re not into football, let your clients know! They might want you to take the dog out for its usual evening walk when a game’s on, meaning they can focus on the football.

Also let your clients know that you’d be happy to dog sit for a few hours if you’re looking to scale up. Just make sure to manage any changes to your bookings and avoid bringing dogs together who might not get on.

Cleaners

Goal celebrations can be messy, especially if they’re a last-minute winner. Drinks go flying, food too, and suddenly the carpet has a big stain on it.

And if the partying goes on late into the night, many people won’t fancy cleaning up the next day.

Consider posting your rates on social media the day before and the day after a big match. This should be in Facebook groups and also on Instagram, and may catch someone who’s feeling a bit sheepish.

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