Grabbing a pie and pint at the football is an intrinsic part of the sport – especially at grassroots level.
Many fans love picking up some food and drink before, during or after a game to supplement their viewing experience.
Indeed, documenting your experience at the stadium is now a growing phenomenon on social media, with Twitter account ‘Footy Scran’ – scran being a slang word for food – asking supporters to rate and slate football clubs’ offerings.
Many teams get it wrong – with an appalling £7.50 cheese dog sold outside Manchester United’s Old Trafford ground labelled ‘criminal’ online, and Arsenal among those accused of fleecing fans with sky-high prices.
Below, Sportsmail looks at the best and the worst of football stadium food – from the scran-tastic to the sub-scran-dard (sorry).
Grabbing food and drink at a football stadium is now an intrinsic part of watching the sport
It is now popular for fans to document their experiences online, for example on ‘Footy Scran’
Here, Sportsmail looks at the best and worst stadium food, from scran-tastic to sub-scran-dard
THE GOOD
Kebab roll at CS UZU Darmanesti
Let’s start with the good, shall we?
Kicking the list off strong we have this brilliant offering from the mighty CS UZU Darmanesti, an amateur team in Romania.
With plenty of meat on the barbecue at the side of the pitch, Darmanesti are offering a thick kebab roll, two thin but tasty-looking Romanian sausages, five slices of toast and two dips as a quick meal.
How much will it set you back? The equivalent of £1.20. A 94.9 per cent ‘scran’ rating on Footy Scran. Book your flights!
Fans watching amateurs CS UZU Darmanesti in Romania can pick up a tasty meal for just £1.20
Belgian waffles at St Albans City
Here’s one to make Scr-Anthony Bourdain proud. Desserts or sweet treats aren’t typically offered at football grounds, but there’s no reason why not if it’s done as well as this.
Below, check out the salted caramel Biscoff-topped Belgian waffles at St Albans City.
David Noble’s Saints play in the sixth tier – National League South – and this portion looks both sizeable and scrumptious. Yes please.
An honourable mention to Bristol Rovers’ churros and chocolate dip too.
St Albans City are offering Belgian waffles with salted caramel biscoff topping for just £6.50
While Bristol Rovers’ churros and chocolate sauce dish shows it’s possible to do desserts well
Pie and mushy peas at Thackley AFC
What a meal this is. A pie is classic, quintessential football food. Hot, delicious and, at just £3.50, Thackley AFC’s is excellent value.
The Dennyboys – no idea why they’re called that – play in the Northern Counties East Football League on the ninth tier of the English football pyramid.
But if you don’t go for the football, you’d definitely make a special trip for the below.
A generous helping of mushy peas tops off the crumbly pastry. Top class.
Ninth-tier Thackley AFC’s pie and mushy peas – for just £3.50 – is a ridiculously good bargain
Curry goat at Slough Town
If you’re a follower of Slough Town – and who isn’t? – you’ll be well aware of their excellent food options.
Fans of or visitors to Arbour Park can grab curry goat, plantain and rice for £8.50.
It’s the most expensive offering on this list – but for a genuinely sizeable meal as opposed to just a snack, it’s good value, with presentation and portion size very decent indeed.
Scr-Anthony Worrall Thompson, eat your heart out.
Slough Town pick up marks for the presentation and portion size of their curry goat (above)
Kebapi Roll at Preston Lions FC
You might call the third division of Australian football obscure, but not Sportsmail.
We recommend you now become fans of Preston Lions FC, based in a northern suburb of Melbourne, Australia.
At the famous B. T. Connor Reserve you can pick up a Kebapi Roll with chilli flakes for just £5.40’s worth of English money. You’re certainly not shortchanged.
In case you’re wondering, Kebapi is a classic Macedonian dish of minced beef and lamb with herbs and flavouring. Delicious.
Preston Lions visitors can grab a delicious-looking Kebapi roll with chilli flakes for just £5.40
THE BAD
Cheese dog outside Man United
…and now onto the bad. We begin with this genuine monstrosity sold outside Man United, apparently costing punters an outrageous £7.50.
The ‘cheese hotdog’ consists of a lacklustre, untoasted bun with no sauce at all, a ‘pathetic’ simple hotdog sausage with char on it, and a few measly gratings of cheese. It’s particularly bad compared to rivals Manchester City’s offering.
The fast food item sent fans into a frenzy online, with people keen to criticise the seller. One Twitter user labelled the cheese hotdog as ‘criminal’ while another said that it may be ‘the most pathetic concession’ they’ve ever seen.
Another even went as far to claim that Fyre festival – the fraudulent music festival that was housed on the Bahamian island of Great Exuma in 2017 – even ‘had better food’ than this. Can’t really argue with that.
A cheese hotdog sold outside Man United’s Old Trafford stadium has enraged Twitter users
Especially compared to their rivals Manchester City’s pricey but tasty-looking alternative
Burger with gherkin at Brighton
At Brighton’s Amex Stadium, fans and visitors don’t really get what they pay for with the below.
A picture sent to Footy Scran shows a ‘burger with gherkin’ which is literally just that: a plain bun, a patty and a solitary, sad-looking gherkin making up a miserable combination.
How they have the cheek to charge £5.80 is beyond me.
The Seagulls should leave this to the seagulls.
Fans at Brighton’s Amex Stadium get a singular gherkin in a miserable-looking burger
Hot dog at Fulham
This disgusting-looking hotdog at Fulham is in competition with the one sold outside Old Trafford for the worst I’ve ever seen.
A suspiciously-raw looking sausage is flung into a hard-looking bun, with mayonnaise and a horribly artificial mustard topping it off.
Fulham is seen as an expensive area but it may still surprise fans that the below will set you back £6.50.
No. Thank. You. Couldn’t pay me.
Fulham’s disgusting-looking hot dog – priced at all of £6.50 – also drew the ire of fans online
Cheeseburger at Hibernian
What is it with clubs and sad-looking burgers?
Those at Scottish side Hibernian’s Easter Road stadium in Edinburgh will have to shell out £4.70 for a cheeseburger.
That price isn’t too bad in itself if the food is good – but it’s not.
A cheap bun, single patty and a single slice of fake ultra-yellow cheese looks like it cost about 30p to make but will cost nearly 15 times that amount. Much to work on for Hibs.
And the ‘cheeseburger’ at Scottish Premiership side Hibernian was barely worthy of the name
Kiwi and sausage pizza at Cerezo Osaka
And finally, the below. It split opinion among fans on Footy Scran’s account but in the end, the overall verdict was ‘no scran’: i.e. not good.
The pizza at Japanese side Cerezo Osaka is, ultimately, a good price.
And though the crust is a little charred in places, ultimately it looks pretty good for the most part, with plenty of tasty-looking sausage. But there’s one problem: the kiwi. It’s everywhere. Sausage and kiwi. Kiwi.
I’ve heard of pineapple on pizza but this is ridiculous! What’s next? Kumquats? Mangoes? Passionfruit and pepperoni? Do me a favour. Fair play for trying something new and ambitious, but it’s a no from me.
While Japanese side Cerezo Osaka raised eyebrows with their weird kiwi and sausage pizza
