Solidarity with flood victims the focus of the pre-match presentation for Spain-Switzerland in Tenerife.

The aid initiatives for the victims of the storm, promoted by the RFEF and coordinated through the Crisis Committee of Spanish football through the national team, took up a large part of the official presentation of the last match of the year for Spain on Tuesday.

The national team will host Switzerland on Monday 18 November in a match valid for the UEFA Nations League, which will also serve to raise funds for the areas most affected by the floods that have hit the peninsula in recent weeks.

The event was held in the main hall of the Palacio Insular Noble Room in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, headquarters of the Cabildo, and was attended by a large number of dignitaries and media professionals.

Concepts such as ‘closeness, affection and solidarity’ dedicated to the team led by Luis de la Fuente were the subject of speeches such as that of the president of the Tenerife Cabildo, Rosa Dávila, who stressed that the meeting on 18 November can be held ‘thanks to the joint work of the different administrations to ensure that Tenerife opens up to the world and to sport’. This idea was echoed by Lope Alfonso, Vice-President and Councillor for Tourism, who described the return of the national team to Heliodoro Rodríguez López after 28 years as ‘a dream come true’.

The Mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife himself, José Manuel Bermúdez, acknowledged that ‘he could not remember a sporting event that had caused so much expectation’, also highlighting the presence of three Canarian footballers in the current Spain squad, as did the Director General of Physical Activity and Sport of the Canary Islands Government, José Francisco Pérez, for whom ‘it would be a great joy to celebrate the goals of Ayoze, Pedri and Yeremy next Monday’.

It was the turn of Alejandro Morales Mansito, president of the Tenerife Inter-island Football Federation, to close the speeches, during which he recalled his experience at the European Championships in Germany with the players and coaching staff of the national team, whom he described as ‘a group of people and professionals who believe in the values of football and try to pass them on to the rest of society’. For this reason, ‘the fact that the names of Tenerife and the whole of the Canary Islands will be heard this coming Monday for the Spain match is something very beneficial for society as a whole, especially for children and young people who dream of one day becoming the footballers they admire’.

The group photograph with the poster marking what will be the last match of the current year for the team of all crowned this presentation ceremony, during which the details of the training sessions in solidarity with flood victims that the national team will hold on Sunday afternoon at the Rodríguez López stadium have also been revealed. Fans from Tenerife will be able to share some time with their idols prior to the match against Switzerland and, as a result, help the people most affected by the recent hurricane in different areas of our country too.

The match on Monday 18 November in Tenerife will be the eleventh match that the national team has played in the Canary Islands in its centenary history, with a great record to date of seven wins, three draws and no defeats in the previous matches, during which Spain scored eighteen goals to just eight conceded.