Football in the Basque Country

As of 2023, three Basque teams play in La Liga, the top division of the Spanish football system: Athletic Bilbao, Real Sociedad and Deportivo Alavés.

Modern football was introduced to the Basque Country in the late 19th century by a combination of mostly British immigrant workers, visiting sailors and Spanish students returning from Britain.

[1] In the late 1870s, various English workers scattered throughout the peninsula began to establish informal groups that were dedicated to different recreational practices, especially cricket and football, particularly in Spanish ports, such as the ones in Vigo, Andalusia, (Huelva and Seville) and Bilbao, who were the regions that most felt this phenomenon.

[2] These first football meetings were held on the quay next to the riverbank of Nervión, also known as La Campa de los Ingleses, and it was on this field that Club Atleta began to play against crews of English ships coming from Portsmouth and Southampton,[3][4] and even a new team, the Bilbao Football Club, which was also made up of British residents in the region, but not linked to the shipyards, such as Alfred Mills, who was a telegraph operator.

[4] Likewise, between 1894 and 1895, the Lamiako facilities experienced spectacular growth in terms of meetings, which were usually contested on Sunday mornings by the British, but increasingly against the locals as well.

[8][13] This entity played and won three games on consecutive days, and then the title after beating the Catalan club, FC Barcelona, in the final, by a score of 2 goals to 1, netted by Astorquia and Raymond Cazeaux, both of Athletic.

[18] Football and Basque nationalism are closely knitted throughout history and would go through significant historical events such as the Spanish Civil War, and the creation of Francoist Spain.

[18] In the early 21st century, Basque football is represented by many clubs old and new, some of them holding a strong presence in the Spanish top division La Liga, including Athletic Bilbao (who have played there on a constant basis since its formation in 1928 and been champions eight times, plus 23 Copa del Rey wins and two UEFA Cup / Europa League finals), Real Sociedad (present in all but a handful of seasons, champions twice and Copa winners three times, including 2020 which was a Basque derby between Athletic and Real), Deportivo Alavés (somewhat intermittent members of the top division but with strong periods and a UEFA Cup final appearance in 2001) and SD Eibar (from 2014 to 2021, characterised as one of the smallest clubs to take part at that level).

Since its inception in 1930, the team went through a series of names, was organised under exile in Latin America with some of the region's leading players of the time during the Civil War, and only played twice under Franco's dictatorship.

[20] Another unique aspect in the region is the emphasis that is placed on producing local talent, with Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao assessed as consistently using the highest proportion of homegrown players across the top European football leagues in the 2010s.