Germany win again in World Cup steaks

New figures have revealed that England’s 2010 World Cup barbecue performance mirrored the team’s performance on the pitch - beaten by Germany.

The competition, held once every four years, inevitably heralds a spike in sales of beef, lamb and other barbecue favourites as English fans get together to watch the matches and enjoy a barbecue - or else pick up a burger or kebab on the way home from the pub.

But EBLEX has revealed the sales spike this summer failed to match the score seen during the last World Cup in Germany in 2006, despite it being the tightest of margins.

The four weeks ending June 18, 2010 saw a peak in sales of burgers and grills of 10,519 tonnes compared to 10,606 in the same period in 2006, according to figures from AHDB Consumer Insight. However, the figure for 2010 was well above any of the intervening years showing that the World Cup is still a bumper time for sales of barbecue fare, like steaks and burgers.

"The World Cup does traditionally bring about a spike in sales and we have seen that again very clearly this time around," said EBLEX sector director Nick Allen.

"However, it seems our dismal performance on the pitch, culminating in the 4-1 thrashing by Germany, was reflected in our burgers and grills sales performance compared to World Cup 2006 in Germany.

"If Gerrard, Lampard, Rooney and co had produced the goods on the pitch, maybe it would have been a different story!"