Aussie footie fans build towering ‘beer snake’

Australian football fans didn’t let the ‘Socceroos’’ opening World Cup loss to France get them down and set about building a post-game ‘beer snake’, while the coach of Panama has made a rather drastic vodka-based promise should his team get through the first round.

Stills from the video show the beer snake at various stages of its construction.

The FIFA World Cup in Russia is now well-underway and as one might expect from a large sporting tournament the drinking stories are starting to pile up alongside the goals, yellow cards and complaints about the use of VAR (Video Assistant Referee).

One of Group C’s leading contenders, France, clashed with underdog Australia on Saturday (19 June), eventually breaking away to a 2-1 win.

Not to be disheartened by their team’s opening loss, a group of Australian fans gathered to drink away their sorrows in the fan zone and indulge in a well-known Australian sporting pastime of building a ‘beer snake’ from their empty plastic cups.

As the beer snake grew so did the crowd gathering round to see it. Normally a beer snake is put together by spectators in the stands of a stadium, ‘snaking’ its way through the hands of participants who add their empty cups on the way to add to its length (they are often banned as a safety hazard).

This particular snake, however, remained freestanding and thus is perhaps more accurately described as a ‘tower’ rather than a true snake.

Still it rose to an impressive height and involved an estimated 1,000 empty beer cups, with a video that has been widely shared and viewed confirming its veracity.

One of the original creators of the snake/tower was quoted in the media as saying the only thing that prevented it growing any bigger was the inability of anyone to get high enough to add anymore cups.

Meanwhile, fellow minnow Panama are also set on enjoying taking part in their first ever World Cup.

The tiny Central American nation is in Group G alongside the hotly-tipped Belgium, England and Tunisia.

Head coach, Hernan Gomez, has joked that should Panama somehow qualify from the group: “I’ll drink two bottles of vodka.”

After a 3-0 loss to Belgium yesterday (18 June) and with a match against a frisky England side this coming Sunday, db’s top football pundits have concluded that Gomez (and his liver) may be spared making good on his boozy promise this time.