Football: Peru fans make biggest banner in history for World Cup playoff game

The banner. Photo / Michael Burgress

By Michael Burgess in Lima

Peruvian fans have constructed what is believed to be the biggest banner in their history, to be unfurled for today's game against the All Whites.

There's a long tradition of flags and banners in South American football, but the locals here appear to have gone to another level with this one.

It covers a distance of 3000 square metres, and will stretch across almost the entire length of one grandstand.

The banner has been assembled over the last month, ever since Peru grabbed the fifth placed spot in South America, which qualified them for this World Cup intercontinental playoff with New Zealand.

It is 100 metres long and 30 metres wide, and was brought to Estadio Nacional the day before the game on a large truck.

More than 15 men were required to carry it into the stadium.

On match day morning, a group of around 20 spent more than two hours painstakingly dragging it across the masses of terraces, making sure it is arranged and in place for the big game.