UAE bars and restaurants ready for late‑night World Cup fever

• Matches at 11pm and 2am
• Pub chains expect to benefit
• Trickier for independents

Giant screens are flickering to life, fan zones are ready to fill up and sports bars across the UAE are bracing for weeks of sleepless nights as the World Cup begins on Thursday.

A record number of teams from the Middle East and North Africa have qualified for the Fifa tournament taking place in the US, Mexico and Canada. The 2022 host Qatar, 2030 co-host Morocco and 2034 host Saudi Arabia will all be there, along with Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Tunisia and Turkey.

Most World Cups are extremely lucrative for hospitality businesses. During Qatar 2022, restaurants and bars in Dubai reported 20 percent hikes in revenues. However, this tournament begins in very different circumstances.

Many food and drink operators are still recovering from the economic fallout of the Iran conflict and the time differences between the UAE and the North American venues present another challenge.

For fans in the Emirates, kick-off times range from late evening to the early hours of the morning, making it harder to persuade them to leave their living rooms.

Pub chain McGettigan’s is running two of the biggest fan zones in the country at venues in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The Pub at the Radisson Blu hotel in Deira Creek is one of many that will be open 24 hours a day for the duration of the tournament.

But Naim Maadad, chief executive of Gates Hospitality, which operates restaurants across Dubai including Reform Social & Grill, Ultra Brasserie and Siena, expects some supporters to choose home viewing instead.

For those who do go out, “average spend is likely to be diluted as people will consume less”, Maadad said.

Ross Matthews-Smith, co-founder and CEO at investment company MSK Ventures, which owns the Fibber Magee’s pubs, said he was not expecting business to be “materially impacted” by the tournament and would gauge whether there was enough demand for extra opening hours.

Matthews-Smith said he was expecting a strong contingent of Scottish regulars to be on hand at Fibber Magee’s cheering their side in group matches against Haiti, Morocco and Brazil.

Yann Decaix, cluster general manager at the Radisson Blu in Deira Creek, is looking forward to a passionate following from supporters of the Arab teams. Meanwhile, Simon Robinson, director of operations and franchise at Brass Monkey, is anticipating strong backing for European heavyweights England, France, Spain and Germany – as well as World Cup stalwarts Brazil.

Steve Odinga, senior research analyst at Euromonitor, said the World Cup should be viewed “as an incremental demand driver that complements existing growth trends rather than a transformational event for the sector”.

For smaller venues, the economics are less straightforward. Lisa Knight, co-founder of Cafe Isan, a neighbourhood Thai restaurant in Jumeirah Lakes Towers, said the costs associated with showing matches made participation difficult.

“Licensing fees are not generally feasible for smaller operators,” she said. “The return on investment simply doesn’t add up for many independent venues.”

Not everyone is worried. Electronics retailers are already seeing a rush from fans preparing their own World Cup viewing set-ups.

Ashish Panjabi, chief executive of UAE electronics retailer Jacky’s, said demand for televisions had accelerated over the past weekend, with larger screen sizes proving particularly popular.

“Anything over 75 inches has been in strong demand,” he said. “These are the seasons we wait for.”