There is a 9th tier club known more for their food than football having pulled off a prank which went viral and saw them make the most of it.
Footy Scran has sparked a huge interest into the grub sold at football stadiums up and down the nation.
They have posted hundreds of photos, some of them proving very popular and others looking grim.
Seeing just how success the Twitter account has become, getting over 441,000 followers since being set up in October 2020, one person decided to pull of a social media prank. As seen below in the first photo…
That person was Barney Sweeney, tweeting a picture of a random box of Chinese food which he joked the part-time Berkshire outfit had been selling to spectators inside their ground.
Within just a few days of the account sharing this, the post of this random box of Chinese got thousands of likes.
“The likes went from 1,000 to 2,000 to 5,000 in no time,” said Vicky Pyke, treasurer at Reading City, as per BBC Sport.
“I said to the chairman ‘we need to jump on this because if we don’t then someone else will’.”
Before long, the club started selling Thai red curry, noodles, spring rolls, pak choi and chicken balls – all served in a pizza box – at a price of £10.
A picture of the food, cooked by chairman Martin Law, received more than 20,000 likes, and is now on sale at every home game at Reading City, who usually only get just over 100 spectators through the turnstiles.
“A lot of people hadn’t heard of Reading City before all this happened,” said Simon Johnson, manager of the club.
“None of this would have happened but for my mate Barney.
“He thought it would be funny to tweet a picture of a huge box of Chinese food and say ‘look what they’re serving at Reading City’.
“We had to do something as a club because thousands of people were reacting in a positive way on social media. The first game after the joke, 20-odd people turned up asking for a Chinese because they had seen it on Twitter.
“I’ve heard some people say we’re more famous for food than for football right now.”
Pyke added: “It’s been such a boost for the club. We have seen new faces at the ground since we started selling it.
“There was one gentleman from Cornwall who wasn’t sure whether to come and watch us or go to Hungerford. He picked us because of the food.
“Another fan asked ‘can you get a box ready for the end of the game so I can take it home to my wife and son?’.”
Each food box sold sees Reading City earn around £4 profit.
“The players sometimes have the leftovers in the dressing room after a match,” added Johnson.
“I have tried it. It’s good, but it is not something I would recommend as a pre-match meal for the team. It might slow them down.”
Now we have looked into the 9th tier club known more for their food than football fans have given their reaction…
@dbelcham: This might be the greatest thing ever. I’d be at Reading City if it were feasible. @FootyScran is a great follow too.
@ChrisRobson9: @CranfieldUnited have the best Chinese match day food 😍
@geoffcovey: I shall be filling my boots when @1972Jets visit 🥢🍚
@chosenfamilythe: The lesson being, ‘don’t send jokey posts, to FootyScran’. You will be found out or, boost your business. 😂😂
@SimpleFacks: dnt go footy to read i go to drink carlin n watch goals bein scored. end of
@ForeverAYellow: Now that looks like proper decent grub that, would definitely buy it, however i’d def need a few others with me to finish it!
@nonleaguetraveller: this is definitely my kind of food to eat at footie – looks quite the challenge to take on though
@robbiehowler: so many twists and turns here haha the thought of doing something funny, thinking it could backfire if found out they dont actually do it, then the realisation again that they could just do their own version and its a win win then, and if anything the real version got more likes than the fake prank one haha fairplay
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