World Cup: beers, songs, fights... In Tenerife, Welsh fans feel at home

It all started with a tweet that went viral.

The Spanish island of Tenerife has become the base camp for the World Cup for many Welsh fans, irritated by the price of a stay in Qatar and the severe restrictions on alcohol in the emirate.

When Gareth Bale and his teammates qualified for the World Cup finals in June, a first for Wales since 1958, Bethany Evans, 25, suggested on Twitter Welsh fans choose Tenerife, more than 6,500 km away of Qatar, as an alternative.

Originally, it was a "joke", told AFP this health and safety manager from Pontypridd, a town in south Wales.

But her tweet quickly went viral, with 2,500 Welsh supporters claiming on social media to want to do like her.

To all Wales fans and everyone: a quick note from me❤️ pic.twitter.com/XbCqA3UJca

— B🏴 ViaMichelin

"I really thought it would just be me and a few friends, it's really incredible", assures the young woman, who arrived in Tenerife on the first day of the World Cup to follow the tournament with her father, six friends. .and hundreds of other supporters.

For her plane ticket and a week's accommodation, Bethany Evans claims to have paid 750 pounds sterling (865 euros) in total.

A stay in Qatar, meanwhile, would have cost nearly 3,000 pounds (3,470 euros), according to his estimates.

Extra kegs of beer and a big fight

In Tenerife, bars and restaurants rolled out the red carpet for these supporters, decorating their walls with Welsh flags and showing all of Wales' matches on television.

A way to bring the spirit of the World Cup to life from a distance, while enjoying the economic benefits of this influx of tourists, eager to party without breaking the bank, but also without any alcohol deprivation.

Owner of The Original Wigan Pier pub and its neighboring bar La Flaca, in Costa Adeje, a town in the south-west of Tenerife, Kelly Spiers says she has ordered additional kegs of beer to welcome fans to her establishments, which have been transformed into the country's HQ of Wales.

Dressed in red jerseys and singing their anthem at the top of their voices, hundreds of Welsh supporters gathered in its two bars to watch their team draw against the United States (1-1) on November 21, then to its defeat (2-0) against Iran on Friday.

“Many of us have lost our voices” from having to “scream from one end of the bar to the other” during matches “to take orders from customers,” Kelly Spiers told AFP.

"They were so noisy," she laughs.

Since the start of the tournament, there have been fans "every night", says Tony Lankshear, employee of the Hoops Bar, an establishment located in the seaside resort of Los Cristianos, in the south of the island, who enjoys of this crowd.

“It kind of spread,” he explains.

"The news spread to all the Welsh fans and a lot of them were like, okay, let's party in Tenerife."

England V Wales pre match in Tenerife.

😂 pic.twitter.com/P7vywK9fZz

— Hauve (@Hauvetime) November 25, 2022

Noisy, but also bellicose: On November 25, a video showing Welsh and English supporters indulging in a free-for-all in the streets of Tenerife went viral on social networks.

A "pre-match" as the two teams face off... this Tuesday evening, in an atmosphere that will certainly be worth the detour in the Spanish archipelago.

The Welsh will play their survival in Group B against their great rivals, after their defeat against Iran (0-2) in the last seconds.

Asked about this rivalry that he was asked to explain, Gareth Southgate, the English coach, also insisted, with a laugh: “How to explain … they are there and we are there, he said. he explained, mimicking with his hands two countries glued to each other.

Like all neighboring countries, there is a competitive rivalry.

For me, it's a great sporting rivalry.

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