Hotel to become fortress

The Solplay hotel in Lisbon

14 April 2012

This is the £6 million boutique hotel that will be home to David Beckham and the England team for the Euro 2004 tournament.

Built last year by a multi-millionaire businessman in a smart suburb of Lisbon, Solplay has become one of the city's most fashionable hotels.

Throughout the rest of the year it is popular with Portuguese politicians and actors, but next month it will be transformed into Fortress England.

Every one of its 119 rooms will be occupied by team members, Football Association staff, media handlers and physiotherapists. The best suites have two large bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms and a communal living room. These suites cost £197 a night and have been reserved for senior figures, including England manager Sven Goran Eriksson.

A vast cinema screen will cover one wall of the hotel bar on the ground floor so players can watch every match.

The hotel bar is decorated in muted shades, with sprawling suede seating, chrome lights and low wooden tables.

Huge glass doors open out on to a stunning view of a swimming pool. A wooden deck leads from the pool to a tennis court, recently converted into a mini softball pitch. When the players arrive they will be followed night and day by armed officers from the elite National Republican Guard.

The players' diet has been worked out in detail by FA chef Roger Narbett, formerly of the Dorchester hotel, and Solplay's head chef Carlos Morgado.

On non-match days they will eat a light breakfast of fruit and cereal at 9am before heading for training at the nearby Estadio Nacional.

At 1pm they will return to the hotel for a lunch rich in carbohydrates.

This will be the main meal of the day for the players, and rather less appetising than the gourmet menu normally offered in the hotel's Pratos restaurant. Dishes there include Lagosta Molho Tribal - lobster cooked in garlic butter.

Eriksson may wish to steer the players away from the hotel's wine list, which incudes Portuguese classics such as the Dao red Barca Velha 1996 at £122 a bottle.

The only apparent downside is the lack of privacy. If Beckham and co

decide to sunbathe by the pool, they will be clearly visible from the block of flats opposite. Some residents are said to be organising Beckham-watching parties.

But FA spokesman Adrian Bevington says the hotel is a "perfect base", adding: "We are delighted with the facilities we have."

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Hotel to become fortress

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