We're really just waiting for white smoke to rise out of the contract talks with Pepe Mel today, so let's have another Thursday song, shall we?
Today you're getting two for the price of one, because we've finally got round to the perennial favourite, Mucho Betis. It should really have been one of the first to be featured, as the phrase has become almost as closely associated with the club as manque pierda, but I've been waiting to learn a bit about its history before bringing it to you.
As far as I have been able to establish, Mucho Betis was coined around the time of the 1993/94 season, when the club won 10 of its last 12 games to secure promotion to Primera by two points. Suddenly manque pierda - although they lose - didn't seem appropriate, so someone came up with Mucho Betis (literally, a lot of Betis) instead. And it stuck - in a big way.
The phrase is used as a chant in two ways by Béticos. Most common is the Go West version, in which "O-é mucho Beti-é" is sung to the tune of the Village People/Pet Shop Boys anthem to San Francisco (which, interestingly, I also heard for the first time as a football song in 1994, when fans at Highbury started celebrating their side's lack of flair by singing "One-nil to the Arsenal"). Twirling your scarf above your head while singing it is more or less compulsory.
There's also another, quainter version - simply "Mucho Betis, mucho Betis, eh, eh!" with plenty of jumping up and down.
I'd say, though, that by far the most frequent use of the phrase Mucho Betis (pronounced "Moosho Betty" by the way, and often spelled "Musho" or even "Muxho") is in the street. It's something you would say to a young kid playing football in a plaza wearing a green-and-white top, and what old ladies shout out from their balconies when they see you heading off to a game - in other words, a cross between a not-so-secret Masonic handshake and "Hola". Mucho Betis, indeed.
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