Claim it on Rio

As Brazil readies for the Fifa World Cup, here’s a look at some of the demands that different teams have made of their hotels.

Australia

Brazilian meals of red meat, fish and chicken, but cooked healthily. Four players want coffee machines handy. What? No beer?

France

Two varieties of liquid soap, one for bathing and another to wash hands. And tubelights fitted into baguettes (ok, we made the last one up).

Uruguay

Silent airconditioning to ensure their players have a “peaceful and quiet environment”. Hey, it’s the World Cup. You want quiet? Go to the Himalayas.

Ecuador

A basket of bananas in every room. Not the local variety. Only Ecuadorian bananas. What a fussy bunch.

Chile

New beds and flat screen TVs for every room. Their performance better not be flat after this.

Switzerland

Two main requirements – high speed internet and Swiss TV channels in every room. And beds made of Toblerone (again, made that up).

Portugal

A video game console in each room. Because Cristiano Ronaldo, while a great footballer, is a spoilt overgrown child off the field.

Maradona’s basin instinct

Of course, these demands pale in comparison to some in the past. During one World Cup in the 90s, the Italians lugged their own cheese and eggs so that they could have authentic spaghetti alla carbonara. Most entertaining of them all was Diego Maradona, Argentina’s coach in 2010 World Cup, who insisted on state-of-theart bidets in his toilet.