Spain’s national football team will be deprived of their beloved jamón and chorizo at the World Cup in Qatar.
Spain have sent three tonnes of materials and equipment to Qatar, where they will be hoping to repeat their 2010 World Cup victory – including scaffolding to build coach Luis Enrique’s famous pitchside training platform.
The chefs in charge of feeding the squad usually carefully select ham – but they will not be taking any food with them – with pork products strictly off the menu, as their importation and consumption is prohibited in the Arab country.
Former Real Madrid and Barcelona player Enrique, 52, will be hoping the jamón ban in the players’ regular diet will not affect their performance, despite the key role cured meat plays in the Spanish diet.
According to industry figures, Spaniards spent €1.5 billion on 98,740 tonnes of cured hams in 2020, and another €1.5 billion on 145,000 tonnes of other cured pork products, such as chorizo.
The revered, expensive jamón ibérico is created from Iberian pata negra or black foot pigs and rated on the purity of the pig’s breed, its feed and ageing lengths of up to five years and more.
The very best, largely acorn-fed ham is jamón ibérico de bellota, with black-label hams from genetically pure black Iberian pigs besting the crossbred red-label output.
