Favourite team: Whoever’s playing England
A Scottish newspaper has sparked outrage after headlining a message of support calling on Spain to beat England in the Euro 2024 final.
The paper in question, The National, made a frontpage for the Saturday edition of their paper showing a cartoon of Spain and Manchester City midfielder Rodri kicking an English tourist shaped like a football on a beach.
The paper was headlined “Time For Revenge!” followed by “Our message to Spain: Save us from an England win (or we’ll never hear the end of it).”
Under the headline a short message was written.
It reads: “Every summer they fill up your beaches. They drink all your beer. They make a mess of your plazas. They eat fried breakfasts all day instead of your wonderful food. They retire in your towns and sponge off your public services.”
This was followed by a short sentence in Spanish “Ni siquiera se molestan en aprender el idioma!” which in English translates as “They don’t even bother to learn the language!”
The rivalry between England and Scotland is no secret, spanning centuries just in football alone and fans of both nations, and Spain, were keen to have their say on social media.
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One user wrote: “What’s wrong with banter? I mean most of the paragraph applies to Scots too. Take it with a pinch of salt. If we pull it off they can have it back in spades. We won’t be letting them down when they say they’ll never hear the end of it!
Some did not see the front page as light hearted ribbing as people were quick to criticise.
One person said: “@PoliceScotland does this meet the threshold under the Scottish governments hate speech law. As it is clearly xenophobic towards English people.”
Meanwhile one Spain fan said: “Thank you, Scotland! Be welcome to Spain this summer.”
No matter what the fans thing of the frontpage it has clearly divided opinion.
Scotland left Euro 2024 in the group stages after finishing bottom of their group having got only one point and scoring just two goals in the group stages.
Regardless, such is the rivalry between England and Scotland, it was always inevitable that no matter who would be playing England, much of Scotland would be supporting them.
England take on Spain tomorrow in the final of Euro 2024 in Berlin at 8pm.
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