Grocery store in Stoke bans sale of Italian items ahead of Euro 2020 final

Products including Dolmio and pasta were "strictly not for sale"

A shopkeeper in Stoke has gone viral after he banned customers for buying any Italian food from his store ahead of the Euro 2020 final. Avtar Singh, who runs a Nisa store in Stoke-on-Trent, shared a post on Facebook which included pictures of his stock. Yellow and black tape can be seen over the fridges and shelves containing Italian products. This included everything from pizza to pasta, garlic bread to ragu. 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!" [caption id="attachment_280057" align="alignnone" width="810"] Image: Avtar Singh[/caption] Throughout the tournament, Avtar's shop has been clad with England football decoration, and the football fanatic is continuing the trend. 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." [caption id="attachment_280056" align="alignnone" width="615"] Image: Avtar Singh[/caption] He did point out though that customers would be able to get their pasta/pizza fix of they wanted and that the 'ban' is just for "comedy purposes." Avtar said: "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. "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!"