As a result of this ruling the team decided to stay in Mexico and participate in the amateur league under the name Club Deportivo Euzkadi, a move which FIFA allowed.

[5][6][7] They toured Europe in the summer of 1937, visiting France, Czechoslovakia, Poland, the Soviet Union,[2] Denmark and Norway, playing a mixture of national and league sides.

[3] However their homeland, the Basque Country, was taken by the Nationalist forces, who set up a rival Spanish football federation that demanded the Basque team return to Spain,[4] but the players refused and, traveling aboard the steam ship Ile-de-France which set sail from Le Havre in August 1937, they traveled to Mexico to fulfill their contract to play a series of matches there.

Also, they played five matches against teams from the Primera Fuerza league, winning three and losing one, and one game against Jalisco State which they won.

When the team arrived in Buenos Aires they were told that the matches would not be played due to FIFA's prohibition.

[4][14] However the Basque team, anticipating problems with FIFA, had become affiliated to the Mexican Football Federation a few months earlier, on 8 December 1937, and so there was no legitimate reason to ban them.

[19] The cancellation of the tour spelled disaster for the Basque team, most importantly in financial terms, because they had spent all their money traveling to Argentina, believing that they would earn more there.

[24] Also traveling with the team were Ricardo Irezábal and Manu de la Sota both as delegates, and Melchor Alegría as the organiser.

[41] The team also suffered a loss during the season when Zubieta was signed for San Lorenzo de Almagro in Argentina, and so missed the last three matches.

[42] Primera Fuerza, also known as La Liga Major.,[43] was one of two large association football leagues in Mexico at the time.

[59] Apart from participating in the Primera Fuerza league during the 1938/39 season, Club Deportivo Euzkadi also played two friendly matches against a joint Marte/Atlante team (to raise money for poor children and the Mexican Red Cross),[60][61] one against Atlante, and two others against Tampico.

A month after the championship had ended the Basque Country national football team reformed for one last match, played on 18 June 1939, against the Paraguayan side Club Atlético Corrales.

Included in the squad was the Basque goalkeeper Joaquín Urkiaga who had played the season in Club Asturias.

Cilauren, Alonso, Barcos, Blasco, Iborra, Muguerza, Aedo and Iraragorri signed for Club España.