audere_est_facere

Well the unstoppable force that is Tottenham Hotspur FC has now been drawn against Seville with the Spanish game to be played in holy week - Maundy Thursday to be precise.

I understand that Holy Week is quite a big deal in Seville - they have a festival or somesuch.

So what's that all about then? Is it a solemn religious festival or more of a booze-up? Will the presence of several thousand seriously beered Englishmen be seen as disrespectful?

Is there anywhere that anyone can recommend nearby to stay? Seville hotels are all rammed.

Dukey

I honestly cannot believe the disrespect from a faux "lout."

audere_est_facere

What are you on about?

flanneruk

I've not been there during Holy Week, but I was there during a miniature, not dissimilar (but inevitably less solemn), series of processions a couple of months later.

During Holy Week, each parish (the city has a total of 60) has an individual procession from its church to the cathedral. On average, 1,000 penitents per procession, and about 8 or so processions a day. The processions on Good Friday start very early and are inevitably the most solemn. All the processions are serious religious events, based on the concept of penitence. This is absolutely not a local carnival.

I don't know Seville's topography terribly well, so I'm not sure there are any processions likely to be happening near the main football stadium, or along the main roads leading to it. A few jars near the stadium on Maundy Thursday evening might confirm many Sevillanos' prejudices against young Britons, but is unlikely to lead to much mayhem.

But there are tons of bars and restaurants near the cathedral. Normal football supporter behaviour there on the Thursday night (or worse still, normal supporter behaviour going on till Friday daylight) won't go down well with younger Sevillanos or with the gendarmerie, and could easily transgress onto the processional routes. And the eateries and boozers near the cathedral are really pretty good

In your shoes, I'd get away from the crowd and explore the food places by myself, or stay out of town (though you probably won't have much option than that anyway) and go back to the hotel in Madrid or wherever after the match, or get a charter that's going home straight after the match.

Unless a Sevillano/a comes on and tells you Catholicism's gone the same way in Andalucia it has in most of the rest of Europe and my information's out of date. Wouldn't hold my breath over that though.

PalenQ

Holy Week and Spurs' fans...Oxymoronic? Think unGodly Spurs will have to pray a lot to hope to win this one.
Former Spurs fan now rooting for Man U!

flanneruk

PS:

Each of these processions has what are probably called floats. Huge great things, and what struck me watching their mini clone was that the floats are all carried by very large numbers of the kind of young man you'd find hanging round the terraces at London football grounds. Only fitter.

Not a bunch of elderly aunts. Not people you'd want to piss off. And they seem to be all over the place. It may be different in Holy Week, but there wasn't just one route. Each parish had a separate maze of side streets their procession went through, and the young men came back that way after the religious part was over.

audere_est_facere

That's the sort of thing I'm worried about. I have googled and it certainly seems that Holy Week is a big deal in Seville. It seems to revolve around fraternities having parades with floats - which is why I wondered if it isn't a bit more like a fiesta. There certainly seems to rather a lot of drinking involved.

The stadium seems to be pretty central - although the internet is useless on this matter.

I can see this ending in tears.

PalQ: I'm just hoping that a jew being crucified in that week isn't an omen!

PalenQ

If so that won't be the only thing crucified as am fearing the worst for the Spurs in the match.
Cordoba, a lovely city, is just a short AVE train ride away.

audere_est_facere

Nah, we'll stroll it.

Cordoba - very good shout. I've been there and it is lovely. I have also been to Seville which I wasn't that taken with.

The Spaniards have been moving heaven and earth to try and get the game moved, but it goes ahead as planned

PalenQ

Who is favored in this match? I know Spurs are not too hot but how bout Seville?

Current betting odds? I assume Brits bet on football much as we do in the Colonies on sports?

Maybe i'll float a few quid on the Spurs assuming i'd get a great return if by chance they win.

audere_est_facere

Too close to call. They are favourites to win the cup and we are second favourites. Seville are doing pretty well in he Spanish league, but so would a pub team.

Their top scorer is a spurs reject.

The ideal, realistic, scenario is to get a score draw over there and then do them at the Lane.

The Spanish authorities have woken up to the fact that there will be at least 4,000 fans with tickets and probably about as many without descending on the city. They plan to close of a part of the city to the Spanish and let us have that.

PalenQ

Kind of a revival of the old Jewish ghettos many Spanish towns had in medieval times? But this time for Anglos.

audere_est_facere

Just so. There's going to be beer tents and entertainment etc - all away from the parade routes.

PalenQ

So we'll have the holy outside in the parades and the infidels inside guzzling booze - seems fitting.

Go Spurs - from an ex-Spurs and now Man U fan!

audere_est_facere

From what I can gather on the parades - they seem to revolve around boozing as well.

kenderina

Let's say Seville's Holy Week is Catholicism "the Andalusian way". So, at the same time that it is deeply religious (very old traditions involved), it's also an occasion to go out with friends and family, share food and booze..so if weather is ok, the streets are full of people all day long (and night...). It's a bit mistaking even for other spaniards like me...that's what makes it unique. When you see it from the outside looks like a big festival...but really, it is not, it's a different form of religious feelings and attitudes
Anyway, Sevilla FC stadium is not very central for the Holy Week purposes.
And don't think about ghettos and things like that...it's only that a bunch of english drunk people mixed with a bunch of sevillian drunk people just make too much drunk people to handle with

JJBhoy

David,

I was lucky enough to be in Seville in 2003 when Celtic played Porto in the UEFA Cup Final (couldn't get a ticket though).

Anyway, you might find this video of interest from the point of view of both football & travel;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mYAcLSn1zQ

Jim

PalenQ

WAR IN ROME

Disturbing reports about Italian football hooligans plotting to attack ManU fans in a build up to tonight's big match with Rome AS (?) team. But it could well be just a smear according to the Italian Embassy who claims UK is trying to slur Rome. Rome's Mayor is also irate but nevertheless issued warnings to MU fans such as not to take the metro to tonight's match at the Olympic Stadium.

6,000 MU fans are coming to Rome and it turns out that some 200 of these fans were running amok last night in central Rome - moving from pub to pub. Meanwhile some Italian hooligans were roving the same area and police were constantly chasing both groups down.

audere_est_facere

Well so far so good. I have managed to avoid the police as I travelled independently (those on the official charters are being bussed straight to the "fanzone&quot. It's rather spiffy all round although the weather's not as good as I'd hoped.

Those Man Utd fans looked to me to be pretty much innocent. The Italian old bill just laid into them. Man Utd fans can be very naughty indeed, but that loooked to me like it wasn't their fault.

Now I'm off for a cerveza and some paellla - then off to the fan zone to get pleasantly brahms (you can't watch Spurs totally sober).

COYS!

audere_est_facere

I'm just back and all I will say is the Spanish police are the most xenophobic thuggish tossers on the planet.