1 Jan, 2023 @ 11:30
1 min read

Real softies: The Spanish football fans who donate thousands of cuddly toys at half time

Rain Of Stuffed Animals Organized By Real Betis At Benito Villamarin Stadium In Seville, Spain 12 Dec 2021
December 12, 2021, Seville, Spain: Stuffed animals seen on the grass of Benito Villamarin Stadium in Seville. Real Betis organized a rain of stuffed animals during the half time of the La Liga Santander match between Real Betis and Real Sociedad. (Credit Image: © Francis Gonzalez/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire)

REAL Betis’s match against Athletic Club Bilbao saw a pitch invasion in their last home game of the year.

But there were no hooligans in sight as the Sevilla team’s supporters carried on a ‘tradition’ of showering the pitch with cuddly toys and Teddy bears.

Rain Of Stuffed Animals Organized By Real Betis At Benito Villamarin Stadium In Seville, Spain 12 Dec 2021
Real Betis organised a rain of stuffed animals during the half time of the La Liga Santander match between Real Betis and Athletic Club Bilbao. PHOTO: Francis Gonzalez/SOPA Images via ZUMA7Cordon Press

They have been doing so since 2018, with the soft toys being donated to disadvantaged children over Christmas and the New Year.

This year fans rained more than 14,000 of the cuddly presents from the stands during half time, which were quickly collected by volunteers at the Benito Villamarin stadium.

Gifts are already being distributed by the Real Betis Foundation, which runs the event.

They are going to different charities and associations in the city initially, with more being sent nationally and abroad in the coming weeks.

Recipients will include children supported by a project in Equatorial Guinea led by ex-player Benjamín Zarandona.

Dilip Kuner

Dilip Kuner is a NCTJ-trained journalist whose first job was on the Folkestone Herald as a trainee in 1988.
He worked up the ladder to be chief reporter and sub editor on the Hastings Observer and later news editor on the Bridlington Free Press.
At the time of the first Gulf War he started working for the Sunday Mirror, covering news stories as diverse as Mick Jagger’s wedding to Jerry Hall (a scoop gleaned at the bar at Heathrow Airport) to massive rent rises at the ‘feudal village’ of Princess Diana’s childhood home of Althorp Park.
In 1994 he decided to move to Spain with his girlfriend (now wife) and brought up three children here.
He initially worked in restaurants with his father, before rejoining the media world in 2013, working in the local press before becoming a copywriter for international firms including Accenture, as well as within a well-known local marketing agency.
He joined the Olive Press as a self-employed journalist during the pandemic lock-down, becoming news editor a few months later.
Since then he has overseen the news desk and production of all six print editions of the Olive Press and had stories published in UK national newspapers and appeared on Sky News.

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