An alternative
▶ Wales fans swarm Spanish isle for Qatar 2022
Wales supporters who flocked to the Spanish island of Tenerife to support their team in the World Cup instead of Qatar were still smiling on Tuesday after their team were knocked out by England.
When Wales qualified for the tournament for the first time since 1958 in June, Bethany Evans, 25, looked in to going to Qatar but was put off by the steep cost and strict restrictions on alcohol.
So she suggested Tenerife as an alternative on Twitter “as a joke” and the idea snowballed, with the post retweeted over 200 times.
Interest surged after she pitched the idea on an evening TV news show in Wales in July.
That led to a Facebook group that had nearly 3,000 members as of this week where fans discuss their travel plans and share pictures of themselves supporting their side in Tenerife.
“I really thought it would just going to be me and a few friends so this is absolutely incredible,” said Evans, a health and safety manager from Pontypridd, Wales who flew to Tenerife on the opening day of the tournament with her father and six friends.
“We were looking to have the away experience and still have that fan zone feeling, and just having everyone together.”
Evans said she paid 750 pounds ($905) for a flight to Tenerife and a week’s accommodation while going to Qatar would have set her back 3,000 pounds.
‘Happy to be here’
Pubs and restaurants on Tenerife, part of Spain’s sun-kissed Canary Islands off the northwest coast of Africa, have rolled out the welcome mat, decorating their walls with Welsh flags and putting Wales matches on TV.
Decked out in red Welsh football jerseys, hundreds of Wales fans packed the Original Wigan Pier pub in Costa Adeje in southwestern Tenerife to watch Wales and England face off on Tuesday in their final Group B game.
Among them was James Windows, a 59-year-old builder, who was unfazed by Wales’ 3-0 defeat by England which eliminated his side from the tournament.
“We are just happy to be here. It’s our first World Cup” in years, he told AFPTV at the pub which was decorated with red and green balloons, the colors of the Welsh flag.
Carles Brooks, a 52-yearold Welsh ambulance driver who also watched the match at the pub, said he was proud Wales had made it so far.
“We got to the finals. We didn’t expect much. We got there, the smallest nation other than Qatar” to reach the tournament, he said.
Extra beer
Kelly Spiers, 45, the owner of the Original Wigan Pier pub and its sister bar La Flaca next door, said she had to order extra beer after she agreed at Evans’ request to host Wales fans during the World Cup.
“A lot of us have lost our voices because we have been shouting across the bar trying to get people’s orders because they were so noisy,” said Spiers, who is from Northern Ireland and has lived in Tenerife for 26 years.
Her two bars were selling a special red-and-green cocktail made of creme de menthe and strawberry liqueur called the “cwtch” – the Welsh word for a hug.
Welsh fans have jammed other bars and restaurants in palm-lined Costa Adeje as well as nearby Los Cristianos and other coastal towns dotted across Tenerife, the most visited of the Canary Islands which is home to around 93,000 people.
Tony Lankshear, who works at Hoops Bar in Los Cristianos, said there have been Welsh fans “in every night” since the tournament began.
“It just sort of caught on. Word spread among all the Welsh supporters. A lot of them decided ‘right let’s go over and have a party in Tenerife,’” he said.