Mum of England fan who 'petted a lion and partied with sheikh' says son wasn't telling entire truth

An England fan has gone viral after claiming he spent the night partying with Qatari sheikhs and their pet lions - and apparently, he was actually telling the truth - though he did get a few things wrong when he first told the story.

Raving about his royal visit to TalkSport, Alex's dad claimed: "Last night we met one of the Sheik's sons and he took us back to the palace and he showed us he had lions and everything. They made us so welcome... it doesn't get any better than this."

As you can imagine, most people didn't really buy the story.

"Can’t tell if they’re taking the p*ss or not," wrote one viewer who spotted the video online.

Thankfully, Alex, 23, can now rely on his mum Sheena, 55, to vouch for him.

She clarified, though, that there were some details that Alex fudged when he first told the story.

Rather than the 'sheikh's son', it was a 'couple of the sheikh's cousins', and he was invited over for tea and coffee at the palace rather than beer.

"Just two days into the trip, they are already up to hi-jinks," said the mum.

"I’ve not been able to speak to them directly because of very poor mobile reception, but they have been WhatsApping videos and pictures.

"They say the atmosphere is amazing and the Qataris are fantastic.

"They did tell me that they had met a couple of sheikh’s cousins and I have seen that a lot of people didn’t believe it, but it is true."

She added that, while her son 'might have been looking for beer', all he got was tea and coffee in the end.

"They have always wanted to go to the World Cup. They have tickets for all of England’s group games and they are hopefully going to see England go all the way and win the final."

Alex and his dad are due to fly back home on December 20, but if this is what they got up to on day one, who knows what stories they might come home with?