Caroline Briggs BBC News Online

Football fans wanting a tipple with their World Cup fix will be able to indulge in a pint as pubs prepare to open early.

The time difference with Japan means that some games will start as early as 0600 BST and landlords wanting to serve alcohol for the England games have applied for a special licence.

But the practice of supping a pint at breakfast time is not unusual to thousands of market traders across the country.

Under current licensing laws, pubs within a certain distance of a market are allowed to open and serve alcohol from 0530 BST.

Drinking is like sex. Some people prefer it in the morning and some people prefer it at night

Johnny Mollton

The Mercat, at Birmingham's Wholesale Market, is the only one in the city to open its doors early in the morning for traders who have been hard at work all night.

On a chilly, grey, spring morning, a wide assortment of people are hugging their pints at the bar of the city-centre pub.

From market traders with a faint whiff of fish clinging to their overalls, to a group of young men still the worse for wear after an uninterrupted night out on the town.

Fish trader Ken Williams, 51, told BBC News Online he was a regular in the pub after 17 years working in the market.

"I start at 2.30am in the morning and don't finish until 11am so I come in here for my break and again at the end of the shift.

"You really get a range of different people in here at this time of day. It can get really busy when the market traders knock off for the day."

Pat Wheelan: 'Valuable service'

Mr Willams and his colleague Johnny Mollton say they do not find drinking in the morning a strange pastime.

They consider a morning spent at the bar as their social life - a chance to catch up on gossip and sink a few pints before retiring to bed at lunchtime.

"Drinking is like sex," explained Mr Mollton.

"Some people prefer it in the morning and some people prefer it at night."

"I'm a morning man myself."

Paul Curley, a night shift worker at Birmingham Airport, said he comes to The Mercat for a drink after collecting produce from the market.

He thinks football fans flocking to the pubs for an early-morning tipple could be in for a shock.

Drunk employees

"I think drinking in the morning is going to be very foreign to them... it is easy to get drunk in the morning."

"People are used to getting up in the morning and having a bowl of cereal, instead it's going to be a pint of beer before going into work.

"This is night time for night shift workers. They have a pint in the morning and go to bed, not back to the floor.

"There's going to be some very drunk employees in the workplace."

When licensing rules were changed during World War Two, officials missed an old law stating that if a public house was near a place given over solely to market trade, then it had to open to offer refreshments.

As it was missed, the law still applies.

The Mercat stands within the confinements of Birmingham's Wholesale Market and is built on the site of the old Smithfield Market and slaughterhouse.

The Mercat stands inside Birmingham market

Pat Wheelan, owner of The Mercat, believes his pub offers a valuable service to market traders and night shift workers.

"I have been here 12 years and if it were not for the pub opening early, a lot of night workers would have no social life," he said.

"They would just go home and go to sleep without getting the chance to have a pint and a chat."

Mr Wheelan said the pub attracted a wide clientele in the morning, but said he doubted the World Cup would increase trade.

"Because so many landlords have applied for a special licence, I don't think we will see many more people coming here to watch the football.

"Obviously it will be on the television for my regulars, but I guess everyone else will just go to their local."

Less trouble

Customer Kris Mooney, 29, from Birmingham, thinks the World Cup special licences should pave the way for an overhaul of the licensing laws.

He said: "We've been out all night at a house party so we've come here to have one more and a game of pool before going to bed.

"I think it's a good idea... if pubs were open 24 hours there would be less trouble on the streets.

"Having last orders means a lot of younger adults neck a few beers at 11pm and come out the pub raring for a fight.

"In Europe there's nothing like that. Britain needs to catch up with the times."