Over 20,000 Herculeans gathered on Sunday afternoon at the Plaza de los Luceros in Alicante to celebrate the promotion of Hercules CF to the First Federation, the third tier of Spanish Football.
The promotion had been achieved earlier in the day with a 2-1 home win against Lleida, at the Estadio Jose Rico Perez, in front of a capacity 28,000 crowd.
The blue and white players arrived at the central Alicante square, to loud applause and cheering, in an open-top coach. After a lap of honour around the plaza the team members went up onto the stage one by one where they addressed their supporters, the loudest cheer being reserved for club coach Rubén Torrecilla.
The fans chanted the names of the players and the coach, as they sang the club anthem, with the whole event lasting for more than 3 hours.
Their promotion to La liga Hypermotion will see them compete in a number of local derbies next season, most notably against Alcoyano, Real Murcia and CF Intercity, almost certainly raising the interest levels of the sport in the local area.
