Icelandic firm offers English players free whale-watching tour to make up for looming defeat

A confident Icelandic business owner is offering his company's services to the English national team to help Roy Hodgson's men recover from their anticipated elimination from Euro 2016 at the hands of the small island nation.

Following its unlikely victory over Austria to confirm a place in the knockout round, Iceland finds itself paired with the Three Lions in the Round of 16.

While many anticipate Iceland's fairytale journey will end there, an Icelandic sailing company has already prepared 23 tickets for each English player to help get their minds off the disappointment of losing to the underdogs and help heal the wounds before heading back home to a "furious" nation.

"It is only polite and a part of the Icelandic hospitality culture to offer the free tickets," North Sailing's manager, Gudbjartur Jonsson, told the Guardian.

“The poor English players will anyways not be able to return immediately to England after the match on Monday, as 60 million English football fans will be furious when losing to a small island state with only 300,000 inhabitants.

“Therefore we offer a peaceful day with whale-watching in a small town in Northern Iceland with beautiful nature and nice people. That should be the perfect compensation.”

It's probably a better alternative to watching Wales at the Euros after Chris Coleman's men pipped England for top spot in Group B.