State of play: Regions of Spain, Basque Country

Spain is made up of 17 unique and autonomous regions and regional pride is often as big as national pride in what can often feel a fragmented and divided country. This time it's the Basque Country

If the last region in the series is arguably the most political, this one is where identity is most pronounced. The Basque Country just feels so different to anywhere you’ve been, thick clouds can usually be found on the hills and somehow the air feels different as you travel through the region.

There is something that just feels different and like it’s alien to the regions that surround the Basque Country. Ever since the Roman times chroniclers have reported that this region is different, how they speak a language not known by outsiders but that doesn’t mean this is an inward nation, through it’s ports an industry it’s always looked out over the bay of Biscay and beyond in it’s approach to life.

Situated on the border with France and Navarre to the east, La Rioja to the south, and Cantabria and the province of Castile and Leon to the west.

Football is huge in the region and while Andalucia might have the oldest side, it was the Basques who dominated the sport in its early decades and provided the backbone of national team.

Football is not the only sport here though, Basque Pelota, Aizkora, Harrijasotze and Sokatira are all Basque sports that the region takes seriously. The Basque Country has such a huge reputation and yet by size it is smaller than the Canary Islands and Spain’s fourth smallest region.

It is home to 2.2 million people and is also home to a number of football teams who have had a huge impact on football in both Spain and the world.

Los Leones

When you go to Bilbao you realise, Athletic Club is everywhere. When you land at the airport you’re 10 minutes away from Lezama the famed training facility of the club. When you reach the city San Mames is literally the beating heart of the city and it feels like every road leads to San Mames.

When you go to a bar, any bar you will see Athletic Club everywhere, the crisps you eat, the photos on the wall, the scarves draped around the bar and likely on the tv or radio that is playing will be some discussion or focus on Athletic Club. This is a city and a region that lives and breathes football.

Bilbao in the province of Biscay was a city at the heart of the industrial revolution and with that brought the British who in turn brought football to the region.

For greater history of the club I strongly recommend Christopher Evans brilliant book Los Leones but for the short history, Athletic Club were formed by seven Basque students and the English spelling of Athletic for their name shows where the club has looked towards when it comes to football.

The direct, physical form of football typically associated with English sides has also been a trait for Basque sides and in particular Athletic.

From the very start the Basque side were a force in the Spanish game. The 1920s saw the club dominate in the build up to La Liga with Fred Pentland revolutionising the Spanish game with his short passing style and he is someone the club still remembers to this day.

The club as does Spanish football still remember Pichichi a diminutive striker with an incredible scoring record who shockingly died at 26 from typhus. The trophy for the top scorer in Spanish football is known as the Pichichi and the club has a bust of the striker at the side of the pitch and clubs playing their first game at San Mames will leave a wreath at the bust, no club does traditions or honours history more.

Legendary players and coaches are often invited back for ceremonial kick-offs or to be celebrated at a club steeped with tradition and honour.

With no national league until 1929, the Copa del Rey was the benchmark and the club won nine of those in the years from 1903 to La Liga starting.

Once La Liga started, they were also a force in that, winning the second and third editions and have won eight in their history with the most recent coming in 1984. They have also never been relegated from the top flight and when you consider they can only pick Basques it is a phenomenal record and the club is a true giant in Spanish football.

The Basque only policy is an unwritten rule and came into being in 1912, the policy has evolved and adapted over the years but a player has to have either been born in the region, have been raised in the Basque Country or have come through a Basque football academy.

In Athletics history the club has come close to relegation and fallen on hard times but the club and more importantly the fanbases belief in the Basque only philosophy has never waivered.

Athletic are one of just four sides to be owned by the members and the socios elect the president, no candidate has ever proposed removing the Basque only policy which is another sign of how wedded the fanbase is to the clubs unique identity.

Not just for their philosophy are the club a model, they are debt free, have large savings of rainy day reserves, they host a film festival about football annually, they have a modern stadium and every season award a one award to both man and women who have spent their entire professional career at one place.

When Athletic won their first major trophy in 40 years they sailed down the Nervion on La Gabarra the mythical barge and over a million fans turned out to celebrate the clubs Copa del Rey victory.

A club that is soaked in history and tradition but as we head out across the Basque Country the viewpoint of the club might not always be so positive.

Founding members

When La Liga began in 1929 four Basque clubs were in the top flight, Real Sociedad finished 4th level on 20 points with their neighbours form Biscay that season.

La Real spent most of the early decades of their history despite a 1910 Copa del Rey cup win floating between La Liga and Segunda, 70s and 80s changed everything.

With a Basque only squad similar to Athletic in 1974 and 75 they finished 4th, in 79 they again finished 4th and in 1980 they finished a point off the La Liga title behind Real Madrid.

The best though was yet to come with the club winning La Liga in 1981 with an all Basque side and the smallest city to host a La Liga champion a record that still stands. Jesus Satrustegui fired the goals that helped the club secure the title and retain it the following season.

What makes it all the more impressive is this was during a period of huge instability in the region with the ETA armed struggle. For a squad and a all Basque squad at that to be fighting for titles while the Basque region was demonised due to the issues with ETA going on.

Even more incredibly after La Real won back to back titles Athletic went and won the next two. 1984 was the last time any side from the region won La Liga and in 1989 came the decision from Real Sociedad to end their all Basque policy.

In what is a small catchment area La Real increasingly found their best young players being poached by Athletic but also by other big clubs. Barca signed Jose Maria Bakero, Lopez Rekarte and Txiki Begiristain.

With Athletic hoovering up younger players and key players and coaches leaving to other La Liga sides the club felt the only way to compete was to abandon the policy although they didn’t abandon it totally. The club signed John Aldridge as their first non-Basue player and he has spoken of having seen graffiti on his way to the ground calling for no foreigners and how a man spat in his direction.

While now we only view Athletic as having the Basque only policy when La Real changed their own policy it caused the same amount of anger as you’d expect if Los Leones ever crossed that bridge. Slowly though Aldridge won the La Real fans over with not just goals but hard work a trait often appreciated in this industrial region.

After 16 goals in his first season and the noise quietened down around the ending of the policy, two further additions came from England in the shape of Dalian Atkinson and Kevin Richardson. Aldridge was able to do interviews in Spanish and was frequently spotted in the stunning city of San Sebastian enjoying local cuisine which further endeared him to the locals.

The change though didn’t bring success and despite a surprise 3rd place finish in 1998 they spent most of the next two decades in the second tier. Even worse one of the most controversial transfers in the clubs history happened during the post non-Basque policy when Joseba Exteberria then just 17, crossed the divide when his buyout clause was met.

The two clubs who usually have a great relationship broke off relations for a while with La Real furious about the transfer. Exteberria was never forgiven and the fact he scored 5 goals over the years against his former side didn’t help heal the wounds.

In 2002 La Real changed the policy again as they still only allowed Basques and foreign nationals to play for them not Spanish players. In 2003 the club almost won La Liga defeating the Galacticos of Real Madrid 4-2 and finishing 2nd in the league.

The team had Xabi Alonso pulling the strings, the Russian pair of Valery Karpin and Dmitri Khoklov plus Serb Darko Kovacevic who hit 20 goals that season.

Just four seasons later and the club spent three seasons in Segunda where Chris Coleman took charge of the club for a spell, the club finally returned in 2010. They’ve not left La Liga since and have come European regulars. La Real recorded their best moment in recent history when lifting the Copa del Rey. In what would have been a special match against Athletic Club both sides gave up the chance of European football to try to wait for fans to be allowed but unfortunately it had to be played behind closed doors.

La Real continue to have an academy the envy of most of the football world producing world class players and nurturing them for the first team with Martin Zubimendi the latest to make a big money move.

Glorioso

Alaves come from the regions capital Vitoria-Gasteiz. Founded in 1920 when La Liga first began in 1929 the club started life in the second tier swiftly gaining promotion in 1930 to La Liga.

For most of the clubs history yo-yoing has been the clubs way of life, they’ve spent time in all four of the top tiers although Segunda has been their main base.

The club came to prominence internationally in 2001 when they played out an epic 5-4 UEFA Cup Final against Liverpool. Coached by legendary manager Mane and with players including Jordi Cruyff, Cosmin Contra, Martin Astudillo and Hermes Desio they ran Liverpool close.

Incredibly that was one of just two European seasons in the clubs history, they did also make the Copa del Rey final in 2017 but again narrowly missed out.

Financially the club struggled in the years after their UEFA Cup exploits and some questionable characters owned the club over the years including an American-Ukrainian businessman Dmitry Piterman who when he owned Racing Santander insisted he also be the coach, having been disciplined for being in the dugout with no qualifications by RFEF he got himself accredited as a photographer to get round it.

As you can probably tell from that short snippet his tenure didn’t end well with his constant meddling in team tactics and when he finally departed the club after relegation Alaves were on the verge of bankruptcy with debts of over €25 million.

The club was saved by the owner of the Basketball team from the city Josean Querejeta and while his critics will say his focus has been on basketball and he’s not ambitious Alaves have had their most stable and sustainable decade in arguably their history.

The club has a vibrant fanbase and in the last decade or so has firmly established itself as the third power in the region.

Founders

Real Union were one of the four Basque clubs mentioned earlier who were founding members of La Liga. From the town of Irun nestled on the border with France they had won the Copa del Rey four times in the years leading up to the starting of a national league.

On the day of the first La Liga matchday, Antonio Emery was the man between the nets, his son Juan Emery would play for the club in the 50s. Despite being founding members the club comes from a town of just 60,000 and fell out of La Liga in 1932 and have never returned.

In fact the club has played just once in Segunda since 1965 when they had a brief season in 2009/10 but were quickly relegated.

Most of the clubs history has been spent in the third and fourth tiers and in 2020 with the club struggling Unai Emery and his brother Igor bought the club. The Emery’s have a long and proud history with the club and while Unai’s father and grandfather played for the club so to did uncles and great uncles.

Unfortunately despite the takeover the club fell into the fourth tier last season.

Founders part 4

Back in 1929 if Athletic were the dominant force in Basque football, not far behind were Arenas de Getxo. in 1928 Arenas provided four of the Spanish national team at the Olympics, they won the Copa del Rey in 1919 defeating Barcelona 5-2 and three times finished runners up.

The early years in La Liga were further proof they were the second power in the region finishing 3rd in 1930 but eventually the size of the club and it’s area which is effectively a suburb of Bilbao played against the club and they fell out of La Liga in 1935 and have never returned.

1944 saw them fall out of Segunda and most of their history has been spent between the third and fourth tiers. Last season though saw a promotion winning season with the club having Ibai Gomez a former Athletic player taking charge and leading them to top of their regional league.

While Gomez has left for Segunda the return to the third tier is welcome and this isn’t a club saddled down by it’s history in fact it’s motto is a new history.

The Brave

Some stories capture the football worlds imagination and the promotion of Eibar was certainly one of those stories. Eibar is a small industrial town halfway between Bilbao and San Sebastian.

When you go to Eibar everything feels like you’re either heading uphill or downhill with the town placed in a valley.

Ipurua is not an imposing ground and when you go in it’s towered over by not just apartments but neighbouring mountains and hills.

It feels a world away from La Liga but in 2014 they achieved the miracle of winning back to back promotions and making it to the top flight.

The club was debt free but was forced to raised cash or threatened with relegation on achieving promotion to La Liga. Football fans around the world contributed and the club was reprieved.

The club finished 18th that season but gained a reprieve with Elche relegated for financial irregularities. That reprieve kick started a further six seasons in La Liga where under Jose Luis Mendilibar and his high press they became a thorn in the side of their illustrious opponents.

In 2021 and during COVID the club went down and has failed to return, last season saw a firesale as the realities of being out of the top flight further than three seasons and with no more parachute payments hit home.

While the La Liga days might feel far away the fact the club is even established in Segunda is a fine achievement given they hail from a town of just 27,000 people and shows how the Basque Country outperforms its size when it comes to football.

Barakaldo

Part of Greater Bilbao, the city of Barakaldo is represented by Barakaldo CF. The club has never hit the heights of La Liga like some of their neighbours but they’ve been an established Segunda side for most of their history. Barakaldo have 30 Segunda seasons under their belts but last played in the second tier in 1981.

Last season they looked on track for the play-offs for promotion to Segunda with loanee Maroan Sannadi scoring 11 goals in just 20 games but then Athletic bought him from Alaves and their season nosedived.

The club have a relatively modern new ground which opened in 2003 and they feel ripe for a return to Segunda if they can get it right on the pitch.

Honourable mentions

This newsletter is already huge but we’ve barely even scratched the surface of Basque clubs, clubs such as Amorebieta, Sestao River, Basconia, Tudelano the list is almost endless such is the depth of love for football in this region.

The British connection

Given the Basque Countries location off the Bay of Biscay and industrial heritage it’s no wonder the region has such a big connection with the British.

A British coach has mythical status in the region and most of that is down to Fred Pentland and his impact. Even before him though Athletic had Mr Shepherd, Billy Barnes, Jack Burton and after him came coaches such as Ralph Kirby, William Garbutt, Henry Bagge.

Then after a long absence Athletic hired Ronnie Allen who coached in the late 60s. The region also saw an opportunity when English clubs were banned from Europe and the hiring of Howard Kendall was seen as a coup. Kendall is still dearly loved in Bilbao and his memory lives on at San Mames.

Real Sociedad have also had a big British connection, in the 30s the club had Harry Lowe who took them to their then highest finish of 3rd in 1931. He also fielded a 15 year old in Pedro Irastorza a still club record for youngest player.

John Toshack or John Benjamin if in Spain had a spell at La Real in the 80s where he took them to the Copa del Rey and 2nd in LaLiga. So highly thought of was John Toshack that he left for Real Madrid only to return for another three season spell between 1991 and 1994.

Following in his footsteps but unfortunately not his success was Chris Coleman in 2007 when the club had fallen into Segunda. Coleman left with the club sitting in the play-offs but he had disagreements with the newly elected President.

David Moyes also came to the shores of the Basque Country to try to restore his reputation after his spell at Manchester United but he lasted just under a year in a disappointing spell.

La Real have also been a home for players with John Aldridge the Irish striker first coming over as well as Dalian Atkinson and Kevin Richardson. David Vaughan the cultured Welsh international had a spell at the club while Chris Coleman was in charge and in recent years Kieran Tierney played 20 games for the club in 2023/24.

The Welsh and Basque connection was also highlighted this summer with Newport and Athletic Club collaborating for the Newport away kit. The collaboration highlights the story of the Basque refugees who came to Wales fleeing the Civil War with each of their names listed on the shirt.

The managerial phenomenon

While for many decades British coaches were treasured in the region it’s gone the other way with Basque coaches dominating the Premier League. Mikel Arteta, Andoni Iraola and Unai Emery have all been fighting in the top half of the Premier League with Arteta and Emery both in the Champions League. We have also had Xabi Alonso arrive at Real Madrid with the Basque coach and legendary player having started his coaching pathway at Real Sociedad B before taking Bayer Leverkusen to the Bundesliga. Julen Lopetegui has also been a Premier League coach with some success although West Ham fans might shout me down on that one. in La Liga we currently have six Basque coaches in the league in what is a golden period for the region.

State of play

It might be a small region in terms of size and population but when it comes to football it’s a giant. We have two La Liga winners from the region and La Real and Athletic Club have become European regulars. The story of both clubs has resonated around the world and beyond that with Alaves and Eibar the region continues to have sides punch above their weight.

Basque footballers also played a huge part in the Euro 24 victory for Spain with 7 of the squad having Basque heritage and 8 if we include Robin Le Normand who qualified after almost a decade at Real Sociedad.