I caught sight of this video on a corner of the alfinaldelapalmera.com website and thought it might be worth a post. It's entitled "The origin of the brotherhood between Betis and Sporting" and depicts a game towards the end of the 1996/97 season, when the Asturians came south embroiled in a relegation battle with Sevilla. I'm sure there are readers who know more about this than I do, but the essence is that with Betis safely ensconced in the top five - those were the days, huh? - the home fans decided to lend their support to the visitors, who eventually won 0-1 and stayed up, unlike our city rivals. The game was clearly played out in a somewhat bizarre atmosphere...
What's definitely true is that the special relationship is still alive and well. Only the other week I was in a queue for tickets at the stadium behind a kid in a Sporting de Gijón shirt, while the comments at the end of any article about Betis on the Marca or AS websites will inevitably feature words of "Animo" from Sporting fans. And when 8,000 Béticos went up to Salamanca for the penultimate game of last season, they were joined by a small number of Sportinguistas, who popped down from Gijón to cheer Betis on (in vain, as it turned out).
Is there an equivalent in British football? If there is, I certainly can't think of it off the top of my head.
I don't know about the Brits but for example in Germany the followers of 1FCN (I've been a Nurnberg supporter since 83 when I was stationed there) and Schalke 04 have long mutual friendship between the two clubs. It is not uncommon to see Schalke fans in Munich when 1FCN play Bayern in the Bavarian Derby and the same up north when Schalke play Dortmund in their Revierdeby you can see 1FCN fans. When both teams play each other the fans have a great time and there is plenty of drinking and camaraderie before, during and after the matches!!
Posted by: Er Pichi | Wednesday, 29 September 2010 at 02:01 AM