FIFA have stepped in to make cordial amends with a six-year-old football fan who had his heart well and truly broken by Poland’s World Cup group stage elimination.
Aleks Meiklejohn had travelled out to Kazan with his Scottish dad, Iain, to support his mum’s native Poland.
Unfortunately, the poor little chap was rendered inconsolable after watching his team have their World Cup involvement effectively ended by a 3-0 defeat.
Wee man was in tears after Poland getting eliminated from the World Cup. The Colombian fans were absolutely fantastic with him after the game – easily the best group of supporters I’ve ever sat with. Amazing support 👏🏼🇨🇴🇵🇱 #monpolska #fifaworldcup #colombia pic.twitter.com/r1s6JYYWLJ
— Iain Meiklejohn (@meiklejohn21) June 24, 2018
The video of Aleks in tears went viral in the aftermath of the game, largely because of the Colombian fans’ heartwarming attempts to cheer him up by chanting ‘Polska, Polska, Polska!’.
Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland, Iain told BBC Radio Scotland.
Aleks got a wee bit upset as you would when your team gets put out of the World Cup.
All the Colombian fans started to gather round us, started chanting, giving us hats, scarves, patting us on our backs, patting us on our heads.
It went viral and we have had non-stop communication from all over the world for the last six or seven days. It’s been unreal.
Iain then submitted the clip to FIFA’s #RivalHug competition and has since been selected as the overall winner.
So, after quite literally *just* returning back home to Scotland, he and Aleks will now soon be flying back out to Moscow where they will enjoy a VIP trip to the World Cup final, and all on FIFA’s dollar.
How thoroughly magic!