Sport & Fitness

Because it’s taking place in Europe, the games are scheduled at times that are friendly both to TV and to London’s bars, restaurants and clubs. Rustle up a few national dishes and you’ve got a World Cup menu; open a club early to screen a game and most punters will stay on for the entertainment afterwards.

If that sounds cynical, it isn’t meant to; London is hosting some really imaginative events. There’s Believe at the Truman Brewery, which has been converted into a 1,000-capacity arena with terraces, scoreboards, DJs, and three huge screens. On a smaller scale, Jackson’s Lane is opting for the family friendly approach with a screen in its foyer and a raffle for a signed 1966 England shirt – with proceeds going towards its ‘The Next Stage’ appeal. And if you’d rather just get the beers in, you won’t even need to take your eyes off the telly at The Victoria in Battersea – hold up a red card and the pints will come to you. Feature continues

This being a multicultural kind of town, there’s something for fans of all nations. At the Goethe-Institut, you can watch Germany and England’s games with commentary in either language. Meanwhile, Carluccio’s in St Christopher’s Place is screening Italy’s games – with an Italian voiceover, natch – while you munch on a spread of antipasto massimo. To kill time between matches, there’s some excellent photography to view, too. Proud Camden has assembled 120 previously unseen images from the 17 previous World Cups, drawn from the collections of Andrew Varley and his father John, who covered all the tournaments from 1966-82.

The Offside Bar and Gallery's 'World Cup'66 Unseen' © Offside Sports Photography

At the Offside Bar & Gallery, the emphasis is squarely on Hurst, Peters and co in ‘World Cup ’66 Unseen’. It’s remarkable that 40 years and hundreds of books later, images from England’s only moment of glory are still being unearthed. This show was sourced from the archives of L’Equipe and the German agency Witters. Hard though it is to believe considering the eminence of the paper now, but L’Equipe failed to get press passes for the final and so shot the game from the stands. When the Gallery’s Mark Leech visited L’Equipe’s Paris archive, he went back to the original negatives from 1966 and found that many had never been touched since that summer. Highlights include pictures from training sessions, new angles on the final itself plus informal moments with the Brazil squad relaxing around the piano.

There’s a more contemporary feel to ‘Sakkar Kyo’ (‘Football Crazy’) at Clerkenwell brasserie The Green. John Balsom’s pictures taken at the last World Cup in Japan reveal the host nation’s fanatical love of the beautiful game.

This will also be the year when high-definition TV comes into its own. If you haven’t got a home set-up (see Time In for details), five Odeon cinemas around London are screening games in high-definition. Each England match is ‘directed by Sven-Goran Eriksson’, has a cast list including David Beckham, Frank Lampard, John Terry and Steven Gerrard, and – with what we must hope is a tongue-in-cheek twist – is rated ‘PG’. Let’s hope it’s a thriller rather than a farce.