Watch the European Championships with a World Cup Winner

You know loads about sport, right? Well, if you don’t you better start learning, because this summer there is enough sport on TV to give a pub landlord palpitations.  Sure, there’s the perennial favourites, like Wimbledon, The Open Championship and the business end of the F1 season but coming to a TV screen, laptop or pub conversation near you this summer will be two other orgiastic sports-themed events: The London Olympics and the European Championships in football.

Now traditionally,  major championships in football are about hope, hope and bitter disappointment, it’s a metaphor for life really. Actually it’s probably why the sport is so successful and obscenely ridiculous and entertaining at the same time. Anyway, once the championship is under way, most people like to enjoy the games surrounded by friends, in a pub, while mildly intoxicated. You know what would be better than listen to idiots extol the virtues of wing-backs, 4-3-3 or Frank Lampard in the your local public house? Listening to two legends of the game discuss it in Dubai.

Mövenpick Hotel Ibn Battuta Gate is offering guests the chance to watch the upcoming football extravaganza shoulder-to-shoulder (well probably shoulder-to-head) with two legends of the game.  England’s World Cup winning hat-trick hero Sir Geoff Hurst and former manager ‘Big Ron’ Atkinson have partnered-up with the hotel to offer fans the opportunity to share a drink and watch England crash out on penalties in their company.

Yeah, that’s right, drinking and talking about football with World Cup winner (nee hero) Geoff Hurst.

The hotel will also host something called a “funkiest fan” competition, the winner of which gets a host of signed football memorabilia, including signed shirts (presumably by other footballers) and photos. Phillipe Bonnot general manager of the hotel was understandably happy about getting the football folk on board: “It’s an honour to welcome two England football legends to the hotel, and naturally their presence will create an extra buzz around the place for the three-week-long event.”