With less than two months to go before the World Cup there are doubts about whether the stadiums will be completed in time, but the teams are getting ready. And part of that getting ready involves making the players feel comfortable in the hotels with a few reminders of home. SB Nation points us to Brazilian sports daily newspaper Lance!, which publishes a story detailing demands from some of the 32 teams that will be participating in one of the biggest global sporting events. And truth be told, they’re mostly quite tame, at least when compared to the things that music stars regularly demand for concerts.
Video games are popular and Ecuador is demanding that the hotel set up a special room where players can unwind. So is France, which is also requesting that the hotel replace all its bar soap for the liquid variety. And Portugal doesn’t seem to prioritize the social aspect of video games, requesting that each room be equipped with a console. Some are more worried about creating a relaxing environment. The chilled-out Uruguayans, for example, only made one demand: that the air-conditioning units be silent. Some of the demands that the Brazilian newspaper details, without naming a single source mind you, hardly seem that strange. Algeria, for example, is asking that the hotel place a Quran in each room.
What else did teams demand? A partial list:
Ecuador: Supply a basket every day in each room with different types of Ecuadorian bananas.
Honduras: The hotel will add six Spanish-language channels to the televisions in each room, including two from Honduras.
Japan: All rooms must have Jacuzzis.
Australia: The team demanded that the hotel install two large coffee machines close to their rooms, in an area that must also include a variety of newspapers from around the world.
Switzerland: The hotel must have Swiss television channels in all the rooms.
Costa Rica: The team demanded the hotel set up a large chill-out room with sofas, televisions and videogames.
