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Successful catch-up between the official Australian and Japanese RCD Espanyol Supporters Clubs
On Wednesday September 5, 2018 an international supporter’s get-together took place in the Sydney suburb of Russell Lea. Around ten RCD Espanyol supporters from both Sydney and Tokyo met at Prima Cucina, restaurant of life-long Espanyol fan Kilian Diaz, to celebrate the 11th anniversary of the Australian RCD Espanyol Supporters Club.
The event was also staged to reinforce ties - established a decade ago - with the official RCD Espanyol Supporters Club of Japan “Perico Nippon” whose President is Nobutaka Nakabayashi.
As has been customary for the past two years, the event featured a Skype connection with Ignacio Ortega, President of “FNQ Espanyol”, RCD Espanyol’s second official Supporters Club in Australia (located in Cairns, Far North Queensland) where for around 10 minutes him and his family shared the latest news.
During the meal both Presidents exchanged gifts, including Tamudo T-Shirts, Yokohama Marinos shirt (Nobutaka’s team), Lapel PINS, DVDs and scarfs.
The commemorative cake was highly symbolic, featuring the Australian and Japanese geographic contour covered in Espanyol blue and white colours and 11 candles strategically placed in the cities we hope new RCD Espanyol Supporters Clubs will eventually form (e.g. Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, all 4 main Japanese islands, etc.).
Amongst those present was Glen Rolls, the La Liga Delegate for Australia / New Zealand and as expected he was asked questions relating to TV revenues and fixture times. However, conversation was rich and varied with stories of renewed enthusiasm amongst fellow pericos with the arrival of Rubi and the resulting flowing style of football being played. Jonathan Tidor, an Espanyol fan who has lived in Sydney almost 20 years told us about his futsal team – with 3 perico players – that recently got to the semi-final stage of a very competitive league. Nobutaka described how he became a Perico and Nick Puñal read out the congratulatory email from the FCPE.
After blowing-out the candles and attempting to sing the Espanyol Hymn (there’s always one more year to practice!) another successful “trobada” came to an end. After almost 4 hours of Blue and White banter people said goodbye with the next catch-up on their minds!