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Aldi and Lidl will close at 3pm should the England team make it to the final

Aldi and Lidl are to close stores an hour early if England makes it to the World Cup final this Sunday.

The discounters will close stores across England at 3pm in time for the 4pm kick off should the national team make it.

Lidl will open half an hour earlier than usual, at 9.30am, but only for browsing, with tills remaining closed until 10am. Aldi will open at the usual time of 10am.

The two supermarket chains announced the move within hours of each other on Twitter yesterday evening.

Aldi, sponsor of the Olympic Team GB, wrote: ‘We’re pretty sure it’s coming home right? If England reach the World Cup Final we’re gonna close all our stores in England early at 3pm on Sunday 15 July. We want our colleagues to be the 12th man cheering on the lads.’

Lidl, sponsor of the England football team, followed by tweeting: ‘As the *official* supermarket of the England Football team, let’s make *this* announcement official… *when* our boys make it to the final this Sunday, it will be early doors across our English stores.’

“As the official supermarket of the England football team, we absolutely believe it’s coming home, which is why we are planning to close stores an hour early, and take part in what we hope will become a day of national celebration,” said Lidl UK CEO Christian Härtnagel.

Giles Hurley, Aldi CEO for the UK and Ireland, said: “Everybody is getting behind the England team out in Russia, including our customers and colleagues.

“With the final scheduled to kick off at 4pm on the Sunday afternoon, we want to make sure that, if England make it that far, our team have time to finish work and get home to watch the match, just like everyone else.

“We’re all really looking forward to cheering on Harry Kane and the boys.”

Iceland announced later that it would close all UK stores at 2pm on Sunday, two hours early, if England makes it through.

Iceland operations director Ewan McMahon said the retailer had been planning to make the announcement once Wednesday’s semi-final result was known, adding: “However, the Germans have already got their towels on the sun-loungers with yesterday’s announcements from two of our rivals, so it seems right to let our colleagues and customers know our plans now. We also feel that it is right to extend early closing to all our UK stores so that our colleagues in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can enjoy the match, too.”

Almost 20 million people watched the BBC’s coverage of England’s quarter final victory over Sweden on Saturday 7 July.

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