Football team offers more than 30,000 free beers

FC Copenhagen (FCK) delivered an additional present to fans after qualifying for the Champions League knock-out stages: a free beer.

The incident occurred after the team beat Galatasaray last night (15 December) to progress to the latter stages of the competition as the runners-up of their group behind Bayern Munich. It is the first time that the team has made it through to this stage in 13 years.

A message was put onto the digital display in the Telia Parken Stadium which announced that all fans at the game would be able to get a free beer.

The football club has a close relationship with Carlsberg, having been a sponsor of FCK since 1999, and currently with a deal until 2026. The team once even smashed a huge Carlsberg bottle into the stadium when a stand was named after the brewery.

If every fan in attendance was to take advantage of the move it would have resulted in a total giveaway of 34,726 beers.

The team has previous form on free beer, providing Sevilla fans at their stadium with the booze due to their 3,000 mile round-trip to see the team.

Manager Jacob Neestrup said: “So I am happy and proud on behalf of the players, the fans and every corner of Copenhagen. This also means a lot for Danish football. An evening like this in Parken, I’ve said it many times before, and I’d like to say it again. Parken can do something special in these evenings, which you don’t see in many other places in Europe. That support really means a lot when we go onto the field, and again tonight we are 12 against 11.”