Peña Armada Sur

Armada Sur is a Peña (fanclub) of CD Tenerife Football Team that is made up entirely of expatriate supporters.

They have their own website in English which is updated regularly to provide the countless supporters who reside overseas with information and links to all things CD Tenerife.

Armada Sur was formed in 1992 by 'The General' - Chris Todd. Originally, the group consisted of 10 members and went by the name of 'The Las Américas Army'. Over the years new members have joined from other parts of South Tenerife, thus emerged the creation of 'Armada Sur' which translates literally from Spanish as 'Southern Army'

Since its formation, Armada Sur has grown in membership to include people from many different nationalities who are resident in Tenerife South and in its current incarnation, has even extended to die-hard fans living outside Tenerife that visit the Island regularly to attend matches and travel to mainland Spain and the other Islands for away matches with the fanclub.

Armada Sur consists of 150 members in its current incarnation and using the Toby Jug pub in San Eugenio Alto, Las Americas as its headquarters, they run trips to every home match and some away games too.

In the early days of the Peña there were far less members, though they were still exciting times nonetheless. A small convoy of cars would travel up to Santa Cruz and, for a couple of seasons, the group was called the L.A. Army. This changed to its present name of Armada Sur around 1993, as it was considered by the group to be more Spanish and in keeping with the team.

The introduction of seats in the new stand of 'Herradura' during the '95/'96 season ruined the atmosphere at the matches, so the group changed 'ends' and bought season tickets in the 'Anfi-teatro' area of the ground. Later on, around 1999, Armada Sur joined forces with the Spanish Peña, the Frente Blanquiazul, in the 'General de Pie' area of the ground. This became known in future years as 'Grada Gol' and has since changed its name once again to 'Grada Popular', but is NOW called 'Grada Animación' as it has been reserved especially for the 'singing' fans.

The official CD Tenerife club started to take an interest in the fan clubs around 1995 and Armada Sur had various meetings with the club officials and the President at the time, Javier Perez. Unfortunately, over the years, some influential members of the fanclub left the Island, only to be replaced by new ones... so it has sometimes been difficult to maintain relationships with the club. However, they now have a dedicated hardcore of fans who attend home matches regularly and who travel to mainland Spain for away matches. On average they have around two coaches of supporters travelling to each home match, which gives the fanclub greater credibility in the eyes of the CD Tenerife board and their webite helps them connect with CD Tenerife fans from all over the globe plus helps forge friendships and affiliations with other fanclubs and international supporters of teams around the world.

They are also the ONLY fanclub for CD Tenerife to have had one of its members, Frank Tolle, on the club board. Frank is the fanclub's Vice President and held a position on the board during the 2005/06 season. He worked tirelessly to help the club through a difficult financial period.

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External links

* [http://www.armadasur.com The Armada Sur Website.]
* [http://www.clubdeportivotenerife.es CD Tenerife Official Website]
* [http://www.frenteblanquiazul.net Peña Frente Blanquiazul Website]

* [http://www.andywoolley.zen.co.uk/ CD Tenerife website in English]