Real Betis and Sevilla drew 2-2 in the Seville derby on Saturday, a result watched by fans of both clubs side by side at the Polwarth Tavern in Edinburgh, home to a Real Betis supporters' club known as a pena.
The Polwarth Arms, near the Gorgie home of Hearts, hosts Hearts supporters, an Arsenal supporters' club, and penas of both Atletico Madrid and Real Betis. On the day of the derby, a couple of dozen fans crowded in front of a television within yards of another screen showing Arsenal supporters reacting to their own match.
Betis owe their green and white colours to Celtic, a debt officially acknowledged only recently, and the pub was decked out in green and white for the occasion. A pillar inside the pub carries the names of people who have been part of the pub through good times and bad, including Spanish names and that of Alan Laidlaw, once a co-owner of the pub who died after a heart attack during the Covid period.
"I don't know if you were at a funeral during Covid," said Ben Prowse, owner of the pub. "But they were soul-destroying affairs." A memorial service for Laidlaw, a Hearts fan, was attended by members of the Betis pena wearing their strips to pay tribute to a friend and fellow fan. Prowse, also a Hearts supporter, said he had wanted the pub to be a football haven when he took it over 20 years ago.
How the Betis pena began
Betis fans arrived on Prowse's doorstep ten years after he took over the pub. "We had been nomads for a while," said Jose Conde, a lecturer who started the pena and has remained to see it grow. Conde left Spain as the country entered its financial downturn and found a small community of Betis supporters in Edinburgh.
"My grandfather was a director of Sevilla," Conde said. "So it was not straightforward to be a Betis fan. My father was not interested in football. I was brought up near the Giraldo and could have chosen either team. I felt Betis was more authentic. It was my fate."
A rivalry rooted in the city
Colin Millar, author of The Frying Pan of Spain, published by Pitch Publishing, has written about football and culture in Seville. "Seville is the best city in Europe. It has the best weather, the best food, the best culture, the best old town, the best bars, and the best rivalry," he said. "It has two genuinely big clubs with a truly 50/50 fan split. This provides the ingredients for the best rivalry, the colour, the noise, the passion. There were 25,000 Betis fans at Saturday's open training session."
Millar said Betis fans' motto is "Manquepierda," meaning their support continues even when the team loses. "They say 'we aren't right in the head, but we don't care.' If you want a corner of South American fandom in Europe, you'll find it in Seville."
Scottish roots on both sides
The Celtic links to Betis are matched by Sevilla's own history, with the club formed by Scottish businessmen. Millar said Sevilla were born to represent international business owners, many of them Scottish, while Betis were founded specifically to represent a more localised, working-class following. "There was a middle class/more blue-collar divide, but that hasn't really been relevant in the past 70-80 years," he said. "Betis have many more fans outside the city than Sevilla, across Andalusia and the rest of Spain, notably Catalonia, due to 1950s internal immigration."
Neither club has challenged for the La Liga title in the modern era, though Betis won the Copa del Rey in 2022 and Sevilla have been regularly successful in the Europa League. "Spanish football is dominated by the big two, plus Atletico Madrid," Millar said. "This has always been true, but especially so this decade with finances decimated across the league. Betis and Sevilla both won one league title each, but none since the Second World War. Both these clubs are big within a Spanish context, but league title challenges aren't realistic."
Fans from Shetland to Glasgow
The Spanish exiles in the pena are joined by Scottish members including Alan McLean and James Masson. "Twenty years ago a friend and myself formed a Betis fan club in the north-east of England," McLean said. "We are supporters of Blyth, who play in green and white, and Betis opens its arms to clubs who play in the same colours. We have been to Seville to watch games, and now I am living in Glasgow so it is handy to come through here. The main thing about supporting Betis is that hand of friendship you are offered."
James Masson, 21, a law student and part of the Real Betis Shetland pena, said a relation of his best friend back in Shetland became a Betis fan after seeing the club's name on a television ticker. "Last year I was told there was a supporters' club in Edinburgh so I came along and loved it. So I stayed," Masson said, adding that he has not yet watched a match in Seville because he is a student.
Luis Gamito, who works in hospitality and has been a regular at the Polwarth Tavern since 2019, said he found out about the club when a driver at his work told him Betis supporters met in a pub. "My dad is Sevilla so he didn't really like it, but my mother is Betis so she was pleased," he said.
Betis led 2-0 at half-time before Sevilla fought back for the 2-2 draw, a result that left families split between the two clubs satisfied, though Betis fans in the Polwarth Tavern may have taken more convincing given the lead they had surrendered.
