A football fanatic shopkeeper has seen his joke ban on Italian food go viral ahead ahead of the Euro 2020 final.
Avtar Singh, who runs a Nisa store in Stoke-on-Trent, shared a picture of his stock claiming that items such as Dolmio, Ragu, and pizza were "strictly not for sale".
The image, shared on Facebook, showed shelves of items such as pasta, garlic bread and Bolognese sauce closed off with yellow and black tape.
Within 24 hours the post was flooded with thousands of likes and comments and shared more than 12,500 times, Birmingham Live reports.
The post read: "We at Nisa take football very seriously!!! Therefore pasta, pasta sauces, Dolmio, Ragu and pizza are all out of bounds and strictly not for sale.
"Nothing Italian will be sold. Goooo England! It's coming home!"
The shop, based in Stoke-on-Trent has been decorated throughout the Euro 2020 season to connect the community.
Mr Singh told BlackCountryLive: "It was a comedy thing for the local estate. I've run this shop for the last 10 years and have become well integrated into the community.
"Football has become a joint enjoyment for us all. We got together to decorate the shop and thought it would be a laugh to tape off the Italian-based foods as a joke and say they are no longer for sale.
"I did it for a laugh and within 24 hours it hit 12,500 shares and is still growing.
"Around 99.9% of my customers have found the idea humorous and theatrical. In no shape or form is it intended to be harsh or contradictory. I'm British, love football and support the England team. It has brought the community together.
"We haven't stopped selling pasta and garlic bread it's just for comedy purposes.
He added: "A big thank you to the Blurton Community for being supportive, crazy football fans and having a sense of humour towards my post.... COME ON ENGLAND!"
