Words Michael Sheridan
In the mid-1980s on a bleak winter’s day in Edinburgh, Scotland were getting hammered in rugby’s Five Nations, yet this formed the start of an unlikely bond between a group of Basque football fans from a tiny town in Northern Spain.
So impressed were the Basques by the Scots’ relentless fan noise and support (optimism doesn’t seem the right word) despite the on-field shambles, they decided to take this passion home with them to their local football club. Eibar’s new slogan was born: Ezkozia la Brava (Scotland the Brave). And with it came the kilts and ‘See You Jimmy’ wigs that the fans of this unlikely club now adorn.
On a bleak winter’s day in the Basque Country (who knew the region had so much in common with Scotland?), I sit watching Eibar in their small and atmospheric 7,000 capacity Ipurua Municipal Stadium, where the lush rolling hills and a residential tower block (which also has excellent pitch-side balcony views) make for a truly unique setting.
To get here, I had to peel myself away from the incredibly tasty pintxo bars of San Sebastian's old town, where I had been stuffing my face with tasty delights for days on end. Once I realised there was a lower league football game on nearby, I spat out my fois gras and immediately hopped on the narrow gauge railway to Eibar, as the train rolled through the Basque hills for 90 minutes.
While the town of Eibar itself has few sights, it does have a lovely square from which to start a civilised bar crawl towards the stadium. Is there a better combination of attributes for a weekend football break?
Opposition fans can be heard chanting on one side of the square, with no one taking any notice whatsoever. Like most matches I watch abroad, there was no tension in the air surrounding opposition fans. Eibar supporters just carried on nibbling their bar snacks and slowly sipping their way through another caña.
Pintxos are reason enough to visit this part of the world. These small snacks line the top of every bar in the region, costing a couple of Euros for a bite of Basque hospitality. On my casual bar crawl to the ground I take in garlic mushrooms, a chicken escalope and a tuna baguette, all washed down with a glass of local Rioja. It’s a very different scene from eating pie and mash before trying to inhale a pint in the far too short half-time break in the UK.
The rain intensifies, encouraging me to dive into every bar I come across, and its sideways nature is only amplified by it streaking across the bright floodlights. I make a base in one final bar to watch Barcelona on the telly, along with a fantastically different clientele to the UK equivalent. The average age in the bar is retired, and the match commentary politely competes with sociable chatter from the bar. It is my kind of place.
I follow the crowd out the bar, and make my way past the colourful ‘Ezkozia la Brava’ mural, with the Scottish saltire on full display, and join the umbrellas nudging their way towards the stadium.
Fully stocked up for the match, including the essential Spanish tradition of a half-time bocadillo ham sandwich stuffed in my pocket, I make my way to my seat in the East Stand behind the goal. Children dance to ‘Freed From Desire’ (nanananananaaananaaa), and the red and green Basque flags are enthusiastically waved despite the rain.
The team scarves, maroon and blue, are held aloft. I get the obligatory photo with a Basque man in his ‘See You Jimmy’ wig, much to the delight of my Glaswegian parents.
In short, the fans are excellent throughout. Even when their team go 1-0 down, just as their Scottish counterparts inspired them to, the chanting is relentless. A festive rendition of Jingle Bells, complete with the whole stadium jingling their keys, is a personal highlight. An equaliser comes from the penalty spot, and a valuable point against the top-of-the-table team is much appreciated by the fans.
Aside from the wonderful match day experience, the story of this club and its Scottish links is even more remarkable.
It wasn’t long ago that Messi and Ronaldo came to town during Eibar’s La Liga heydey (2014-2021), which included a remarkable 3-0 win against a Real Madrid side with Ronaldo, Bale and Benzema. Given my visit to Eibar was on a cold winter’s night in the driving rain, it did make me wonder if Messi and Ronaldo could actually do it on “a cold Tuesday night in Stoke”? It turns out Messi scored an unbelievable 20 goals in 11 games against Eibar, so I think he probably could.
After the club’s shock promotion to La Liga in 2014 they were serenaded by a Scottish piper, and arranged a friendly with Celtic the following summer, which only cemented the Scottish links to the club. Celtic were only the third foreign team to grace the beautiful stadium (after Ajax and Bordeaux), and they received a warm welcome with Basque pipes and the world-renowned Basque food and drink to welcome them in the town square. Eibar have also used Celtic’s iconic green and white hoops as their away kit in years gone by.
As part of the 2014 promotion the club needed to raise £1 million to complete all the necessary upgrades to be accepted into La Liga. This remarkable community effort saw 10,000 new shareholders (3,000 more people than the stadium’s capacity) contribute to ensure the promotion could be rubber-stamped, and the number of Scottish donations did not go unnoticed. As a touching thank you, many of those Glaswegian fans may even have spotted their own names inscribed onto the stadium’s wall when they visited for the friendly.
Who knew such generosity could stem from the seed that was watching Scotland capitulate in a rugby match all those years ago?
