With Wales in the throes of their first World Cup campaign since 1958, we’ve got behind our Celtic cousins to help bump the number of supporters ahead of their clash against England.
Employing the services of the tiny nation’s 10 million strong army of sheep (who outnumber the Welsh population 3:1 – fact of the day) to quadruple their fanbase seemed the only logical course of action.
We also enlisted the help of two Welsh footballing legends to lead the charge in cheering on the Red Dragons, ably assisted by 1,200 sheep who participated in our outrageous bid to breathe fire down the throats of their neighbours before kick-off.
The arresting “SHEEP > LIONS” message was unveiled by former internationals Cliff Jones and Terry Medwin – the two surviving members of the last Wales team to reach the World Cup – at Gower Salt Marsh Farm, just outside Swansea.
Ahead of a huge game for Wales tomorrow night, the nation’s sheep have some much-needed words of encouragement…#Qatar2022 #FIFAWorldCup
18+ BeGambleAware pic.twitter.com/sF3IhKPCI2
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) November 28, 2022
As an Irish brand, we know all about being underdogs at the World Cup. Unlike us, our Celtic cousins have made it to this tournament and because we’re not there, we thought we’d get behind them.
St Patrick was a Welshman after all. Allegedly.
On Tuesday, Wales face England. This is their cup final. They haven’t waited 64 years and travelled all that way to be troubled by a neighbour from back home. We wanted to send a message of support from sheep pen to Rob Page, and warn Southgate: Wales are coming to get ewe – and they plan on showing what they’re made of: courage, fearlessness and 76.3% wool.
Cliff said: “This giant message of support from our treasured sheep population is sure to inspire the boys out in Qatar. If we’d have had something similar in 1958, we might have beaten Pelé and Brazil in the quarter final!”
The 1,248 square metre sign contains up to 160 sheep per letter and sets a Guinness World Record for the largest ever sheep formation. Probably. We couldn’t afford the fella with the clipboard willing to stand in Gower Salt Marsh up to their ankles in sheep poop for the day to verify it.
For those struggling to picture the scale of the message, the letters span 56 Gareth Bales wide and seven Aaron Ramseys high.
For those still struggling, that’s about the same size as the average World Cup football pitch wide and just shy of three double decker buses high and the lettering was formed of a mammoth 700m of fencing and 500 fence posts.
Disclosure: No sheep were harmed in the making of this. In fact, they were treated better than our crew.
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