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Fans hit out at England advert on screen outside Swansea City's stadium

By David Owens
Advert for England Euro 2024 finalists outside the Swansea.com Stadium (Credit: Paul Thomas)

There you are a Swans and Wales fan who lives near to the Swansea.com stadium.

Most days you walk past the home of your favourite team. On Friday evening you do the same. Excitement is building for the start of a new season, but this time it's different. Then you see it.

At first you can't quite believe your eyes, so you take a second glance. There in one of Wales' biggest cities, on a giant screen above the Swansea City ticket office, is an advert for the Euro 2024 finalists England.

WTF? pic.twitter.com/ORSl09XKAw

— Paul Thomas (@NeathJack1) July 12, 2024

Perplexed, bemused, even a little angry you take to X (Twitter in old money) and post a pic of the screen accompanied by three solitary letters and a question mark - WTF?

This was the situation that Swansea City supporter Paul Thomas (@NeathJack1 to give him his X handle) found himself in - and well, understandably, he wasn't happy.

Neither were the many replies the post received from his fellow Swansea fans and supporters of the Welsh national team - including Cardiff City fans, on a wind up, of course.

[mid-content-banner]

SgorioFruit put it uniquely, posting: 'What in the living lumping f*ck is this?? @SwansOfficial???? Seriously how hard is it to get it right these days??'

Rich from Wrexham posted: 'Please tell me that's photoshopped'

Swansea City fan Dan Evans urged @SwansOfficial to "sort this out asap!"

While Angharad Walters summed it up with: 'I get that it’s probably owned by a private company but that is tone deaf.'

The fact it was third party advertising screen operator Elonex's ad was confirmed by a member of the Swansea City staff in response to Paul's original post.

Swansea City designer Jordan Morcom explained: "It’s run by a different company so it’s their advert. Had a similar issue prior to the semi which was removed but clearly re-uploaded today. It has been requested to be removed again."

We all need to hope England don't win it. The ads would be unbearable.

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16 comments

Nia James

I wonder if whoever put this ad up also put one up to congratulate Cymru on their excellent 3-0 win over Croatia last night. No! I thought not!

Reply
S Duggan

It may only be a game but it shows the level of ignorance by many over the border, in particular the media. What would the London press say, I wonder, if, when Cymru gets to a final, we organise a big media campaign on their screens? We flooded their daily programs with red dragons, interviews and game predicting meerkats?

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Cwm Rhondda

I thought the Swans fans always support England, they often have the British union flag amongst their supporters.

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Riki

English and Scottish Union flag. To call it “British” is an a-front to any sort of elementary level of historical understanding. You are already on the back foot if you consider they flag “British”

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Duke Iron

The imperial flag as it's also known.

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Y Cymro

This is highly insulting. This would not happen in England. When Wales reached the 2016 Euro semi-final I can say with confidence that no adverts featuring the Wales team were shown on English TV other than through gritted teeth where a news anchor briefly mention us in the news. I've also seen in stores like Tesco's, Sainsbury's , Aldi & Lidl English flags, posters and standees ect... Also I've noticed this only happens in Wales not Scotland or Northern Ireland. They wouldn't dare do it in Scotland. This is the very reason why we need the devolution of broadcasting and the abolition of the role of Prince of Wales seeing Prince William was forced on us, and that saw fit to retain his post of president designated of the English FA and even supported England over Wales. No other country would accept this slap in the face. Enough is enough. Why do we?

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Riki

Because we have been bred to believe we are inferior and incapable of making our own decisions. We have also been bred to accept the English are British, which is highly historically inaccurate. The English were still referring to the people of Wales as British up until atleast the late 1600 and early 1700s. That all stopped when the people of Wales were forced to learn English, we went from Britons to “Welsh” virtually overnight. And with that adoption, we lost thousands of years worth of historical records where they call us Britons (British) to the Anglo! We are so backwards here that we will never admit that half of the richest countries on earth are those will a lower population than 10 million people. The other main reason we are needed is that Wales’ gold and Scotlands oil is what is keeping England competitive. Which in turn drives the quality of life for our people down. This wouldn’t be the case if we were independent. Wales would no doubt within a decade or two become one of the richest countries on earth.

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Riki

Something a colony would do, no?!

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Gareth

There is an element of the swans fans who would love this, the section that fly the union Jack and fought with fellow swans fans during a game against Blackpool, this same group hired coaches not long ago, to go to London, to " protect statues " with other right wing groups.

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Johnny Gamble

This obsession with Union and Ulster flags was started by a tiny minority of Jacks in the 1990s There are a couple of factors behind this, they wanted a fan alliance with Glasgow Rangers and Linfield in Belfast. Others use the Union flag as an anti Cardiff protest because back then many Swans supporters complained about a pro Cardiff City bias by the Welsh media.

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Jeff

But they play in England mainly. Yeah. That Engerland, where the money comes from in TV deals and advertising....

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S Duggan

Somehow, I doubt it! lol

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Rob

Are Swansea fans racist because they don't support Cardiff? Rivalry and racism are two very different things.

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Jeffrey Warren

Cardiff fans aren't a race, nor are swansea fans,the hate for England here certainly is.

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Riki

Nothing racist in not liking those who deem you a lesser people!

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Johnny Gamble

Many of the so called proud Welsh people who comment on Wales Online will love this.

Reply

Leave a reply

Replying to Nia James Cancel

I wonder if whoever put this ad up also put one up to congratulate Cymru on their excellent 3-0 win over Croatia last night. No! I thought not!

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