World Cup could boost pub takings as HMS Prince of Wales hits trouble

England’s World Cup hopes have lifted the prospect of a £275m windfall for British pubs, even as the Royal Navy’s flagship HMS Prince of Wales was laid up in Stavanger with a technical defect that could scupper a planned visit to Copenhagen.

The pub industry’s upside is tied to England reaching the final. The British Beer & Pub Association’s estimate behind the figure assumes fans would drink an extra 55 million pints, at an average price of £5 a pint, if Harry Kane’s side went all the way. For a sector still bruised by Covid and rising costs, the tournament offers a rare burst of demand just as the competition is due to kick off on Thursday.

That spending spike would come on top of what is normally a major summer trade. In a non-World Cup summer, pubs might expect to sell 372 million pints between early June and late July, so a deep England run could meaningfully move takings during one of the busiest stretches of the year. The scale of the projected boost also shows how closely hospitality still depends on big national sporting moments to offset weaker trading conditions elsewhere.

Away from the celebratory tone of the football build-up, HMS Prince of Wales has become a visible sign of strain for a different national institution. The carrier was forced to dock in Stavanger, Norway, after a minor technical issue was identified during a NATO exercise. Engineers were working to rectify the defect, and the stopover was expected to cancel a planned visit to Copenhagen, Denmark.

Prince of Wales, the Royal Navy’s flagship and the second Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier, has suffered repeated technical problems since its maiden voyage in 2021. It had been operating with the UK Carrier Strike Group in the North Atlantic and Arctic, and the problem emerged after it took part in Dynamic Mongoose 26, the NATO exercise that ran from 18 May to 29 May 2026.

The timing adds pressure because the carrier deployment is being watched closely ahead of the Defence Investment Plan, which is expected in the coming weeks after repeated delays. Against the backdrop of a summer built around football spectacle, the broken-down flagship is a sharp reminder of the gap between national pageantry and the state of Britain’s hard power.