There's a difference though, you don't apply for a job at a football club. They're not rejecting anyone based on where they're from, they're simply just not approaching them.
Nothing wrong with it.
Nothing wrong with it.
Athletic Bilbao - Homage to San Mames
- Thread starter Rood
- Start date
Their Basque-only rule is a fantastic tradition that should be applauded in this day and age.
It's not like they're limiting the market out there for footballers, what with the hundreds of other potential suitors for players to play for. Political correctness GONE MAD I TELL YOU.
It's not like they're limiting the market out there for footballers, what with the hundreds of other potential suitors for players to play for. Political correctness GONE MAD I TELL YOU.
You do kinda apply at youth level, in some circumstances, but if there was a problem with the rule the FA's 90 minute rule would be Illegal.
The problem I see with it, is that you could have two kids that live on two streets just meters apart, same ability, but one gets chosen purely based on location. At some point there is a cut off and there lies the problem. It should be done so that local kids are encouraged, and more money spent on projects locally, but I don't think you should deny someone just because they live a few hundred meters away
Athletic's rules aren't really applied like that. If they played for a Basque kids team, or the family's Basque they count as locals.
It's kinda like Zenit not allowing any black players.
It's not like they don't "allow" them to play.... they just don't approach them.
It's not like they don't "allow" them to play.... they just don't approach them.
I agree mostly, though I fail to see the difference between this tradition and what Rangers/Celtic did a few decades ago.
I personally don't see why their policy should in any way be applauded. At best it should be tolerated or accepted. I just don't see what makes it so inherently laudable.
Well the difference is that it is not based on race (like Zenith, who should be criticised) or religious divides (like Glasgow) - players of any race, religion and background can play for Bilbao as long as they grew up in the Basque region (note that they dont actually have to be ethnically basque).
One of the greatest traditions in world football.
Fair play to them for sticking with that tradition. You can see the players have a lot of pride in playing for their club.
Dont forget that the Basque region stretches into France and French players have been welcomed too.
Bilbao is a great city and the hinterland fantastic. The only thing not to like is the airport, which is on a narrow plain between the foothills of the Pyrenees on one side and the sea on the other. Landing there is NOT a pleasant experience, especially when Atlantic gales are bouncing off the hills!
Bilbao is a great city and the hinterland fantastic. The only thing not to like is the airport, which is on a narrow plain between the foothills of the Pyrenees on one side and the sea on the other. Landing there is NOT a pleasant experience, especially when Atlantic gales are bouncing off the hills!
Yes indeed - it also means that players have a stonger loyalty and rarely leave the club. I remember us being linked to Exteberria (a great right winger) in the past but he never left eventhough he was wanted by a lot of big clubs.
When players do leave, they tend to go abroad as they would get a lot of abuse if they went to a Spanish club.
Will be interesting to see if they manage to keep hold of the likes of Llorente, Munian and Martinez.
It'll be interesting to see how the weather shapes up for the match because Bilbao is seemingly caught in some Bermuda Triangle vortex of a microclimate...Some crazy weather can descend upon the pitch, including near zero visibility fog, in addition to torrential rainfall
the final match has now been played at this legendary stadium, next year is a new start - good article here about the last game ...
Adios, San Mames, Adios
http://www.just-football.com/2013/05/athletic-bilbao-san-mames-adios/
Athletic Bilbao are a unique club. Incomparable to any other in world football, perhaps. An emblem of regional pride, the foremost symbol of the Basque Country, history will be made in Spain this weekend when Athletic play their last ever league match at the iconic San Mamés stadium, their home for 100 years.
Football clubs around the world often claim to be the focal point of their local communities. The idea that a football team stands as a beacon to represent the hopes and dreams of the local area is one sold by chairmen and opportunistic marketing men even today, in an era when clubs are owned by billionaire oligarchs from thousands of miles away, field eleven foreign players without batting an eyelid and dream up ever more adventurous ways of displacing the club from its roots in the name of the paper chase.
Athletic Bilbao are different.
A Basque-only recruitment policy means that for 115 years since their founding in 1898 (officially in 1901, but don’t let anyone in Bilbao hear you say that), only players of Basque heritage have been allowed to play for the club.
This along with a proud history and the fact they are for all intents and purposes a one-club city (San Sebastian is some 100 kilometres away) endows the club with a palpably fierce local pride. Put simply, Athletic Bilbao is the local community.
Nicknamed La Catedral (the cathedral), San Mamés is like a place of worship for Athletic fans. It was built in 1913 and funded by socios (members) who run the club to this day. It took a mere seven months to build and was the first major purpose-built football stadium in Spain, named so because of its proximity to Saint Mammes church, hence the nickname La Catedral.
Its place in Spanish football history is assured thanks to the successes of Athletic Bilbao, whose eight league titles make them the fourth most successful club in Spain after Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid and places fourth in the all-time La Liga table. An achievement of some repute, given their Basque only policy restricts player recruitment to a catchment area of roughly three million people. Athletic are also in an elite group of three Spanish teams to have never been relegated.
It is not just history, however, that provides Athletic Bilbao its distinct charm. Success on the field has played its part, sure, but that one-club city feeling also bestows upon Athletic a unique aura.
“We see ourselves as unique in world football and this defines our identity,” wrote former club president Jose Maria Arrate in an introduction to the club’s centenary book. “We only wish for the sons of our soil to represent our club, and in so wishing we stand out as a sporting entity, not a business concept.”
A trip to San Mamés gives these words resonance. The stadium stands out like some ancient relic, a shrine to Bilbao and emblem of the city’s identity. Around the ground, as around the whole city, the club’s red and white colours are everywhere – painted on garage walls, gates, bike racks. Even the napkins in coffee shops are adorned with the club crest and the words “Aupa Athletic” (go Athletic).
100 years of San Mames
I went to Bilbao for their penultimate league game at San Mamés, against Real Mallorca. On the day of the game, outside the tiendas and cafés young children in Athletic shirts kicked a ball about in the shadows of San Mamés, dreaming of one day following in their forefathers’ footsteps, the stadium towering over them like a colossus. You will not find a Real Madrid or Barcelona shirt anywhere in sight.
In Bilbao they do things their own way. They drink Kalimotxo and Pacharan. The match programme is written in Euskara first (ancestral Basque language), Spanish second.
Inside, the teamsheet lists the birthplaces of all the players. Nafarroa. Bizkaia (Biscay). Araba. Gipuzkoa. Nafarroa. Bizkaia. Bizkaia. Gipuzkoa. All provinces of the Basque Country. Only Aymeric Laporte (France) and Fernando Amorebieta (Venezuela) have birthplaces outside the seven Basque provinces. Jonas Ramalho, the club’s first black player, descended from an Angolan father and Basque mother, is from Bizkaia.
On matchday a certain energy fills the air. One club cities like Newcastle have it too, but this is different. Athletic Bilbao is the personification of Basque life and what it means to be Basque. “A Bilbao without San Mamés would be like Paris without the Eiffel Tower,” the French former Bilbao coach Luis Fernandez once quipped.
“Es un sentimiento”
Almost everyone I spoke to leading up to kick-off gave the same answer when I asked them to sum up Athletic Bilbao. “Es un sentimiento”. It’s a feeling. A way of life.
“We are a race, a family,” said Andoni, a 29-year-old matchgoing fan. “You’re Athletic from birth until death. You carry the club in your heart. We are all from here, we’re all Basque. That creates a different sentiment to teams like Real Madrid or Barcelona who just want to win. We want to win, of course, but the feeling at Athletic is unique.”
Of course there is a flipside to Athletic’s cantera policy. The idea of a club excluding players based on where they come from could be interpreted as restrictive and cliquish – discriminatory even. That wasn’t the feeling I got from my time in Bilbao however. Far from it.
Personally I was received with a warmth and generosity that left me almost overwhelmed. Supporters who I had known for no longer than a few minutes went out of their way to help me find a ticket.
They plied us with rounds of kalimotxo (a traditional Basque drink mixing coke and red wine) and refused our offers to pay. Even after the game, people we had exchanged but a few words with in the street earlier came up to us asking of our well-being, wondering if we managed to find a ticket and did we enjoy the game.
Kalimotxo! Traditional Basque drink
Monro Bryce, an ex-patriate Real Mallorca season ticket holder from Scotland, was at San Mamés for the second time and was wholesome in his praise for Athletic Bilbao. “These are the best supporters in Spanish football by a mile,” he told Just Football.
One Mallorca fan, who had travelled with his 77-year-old father to see San Mamés for the first time, was so overwhelmed by the friendliness of his hosts that he wrote a thankyou letter to an Athletic fansite.
“La manera inglesa” – The English way
Old and creaking, the inside of San Mamés is very much like an old school English football ground. Indeed, Athletic have a reputation as being the closest thing in Spain to an English football club.
Their history backs this up too; Athletic have had several English managers including the famous Freddie Pentland, a revered figure and one of the most successful managers in the club’s history. La manera inglesa (the English way) is a style of football adopted by many Athletic managers since.
40,000 supporters cheered Athletic on to a 2-1 victory against Real Mallorca, a result which all but saw them safe for another season, maintaining their ‘never-relegated’ status. The new stadium, San Mames Barria, cost around €200million to build and will hold over 53,000. Athletic’s win over Mallorca ensures it will showcase top-flight football in its inaugural year.
“This weekend we must all make sure San Mames roars and trembles,” wrote Arantza Garcés, a journalist for the Basque sports newspaper Beste Bat ahead of the famous old ground’s penultimate league game – a sentiment that doubtless applies also to the last ever league game against Levante on Sunday.
“We must make ourselves heard so that not only Basques remember La Catedral. Wherever you may be, this stadium will always be part of the history of Bilbao. Adios, San Mames. Adios.”
Adios, San Mames, Adios
http://www.just-football.com/2013/05/athletic-bilbao-san-mames-adios/
Athletic Bilbao are a unique club. Incomparable to any other in world football, perhaps. An emblem of regional pride, the foremost symbol of the Basque Country, history will be made in Spain this weekend when Athletic play their last ever league match at the iconic San Mamés stadium, their home for 100 years.
Football clubs around the world often claim to be the focal point of their local communities. The idea that a football team stands as a beacon to represent the hopes and dreams of the local area is one sold by chairmen and opportunistic marketing men even today, in an era when clubs are owned by billionaire oligarchs from thousands of miles away, field eleven foreign players without batting an eyelid and dream up ever more adventurous ways of displacing the club from its roots in the name of the paper chase.
Athletic Bilbao are different.
A Basque-only recruitment policy means that for 115 years since their founding in 1898 (officially in 1901, but don’t let anyone in Bilbao hear you say that), only players of Basque heritage have been allowed to play for the club.
This along with a proud history and the fact they are for all intents and purposes a one-club city (San Sebastian is some 100 kilometres away) endows the club with a palpably fierce local pride. Put simply, Athletic Bilbao is the local community.
Nicknamed La Catedral (the cathedral), San Mamés is like a place of worship for Athletic fans. It was built in 1913 and funded by socios (members) who run the club to this day. It took a mere seven months to build and was the first major purpose-built football stadium in Spain, named so because of its proximity to Saint Mammes church, hence the nickname La Catedral.
Its place in Spanish football history is assured thanks to the successes of Athletic Bilbao, whose eight league titles make them the fourth most successful club in Spain after Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid and places fourth in the all-time La Liga table. An achievement of some repute, given their Basque only policy restricts player recruitment to a catchment area of roughly three million people. Athletic are also in an elite group of three Spanish teams to have never been relegated.
It is not just history, however, that provides Athletic Bilbao its distinct charm. Success on the field has played its part, sure, but that one-club city feeling also bestows upon Athletic a unique aura.
“We see ourselves as unique in world football and this defines our identity,” wrote former club president Jose Maria Arrate in an introduction to the club’s centenary book. “We only wish for the sons of our soil to represent our club, and in so wishing we stand out as a sporting entity, not a business concept.”
A trip to San Mamés gives these words resonance. The stadium stands out like some ancient relic, a shrine to Bilbao and emblem of the city’s identity. Around the ground, as around the whole city, the club’s red and white colours are everywhere – painted on garage walls, gates, bike racks. Even the napkins in coffee shops are adorned with the club crest and the words “Aupa Athletic” (go Athletic).
100 years of San Mames
I went to Bilbao for their penultimate league game at San Mamés, against Real Mallorca. On the day of the game, outside the tiendas and cafés young children in Athletic shirts kicked a ball about in the shadows of San Mamés, dreaming of one day following in their forefathers’ footsteps, the stadium towering over them like a colossus. You will not find a Real Madrid or Barcelona shirt anywhere in sight.
In Bilbao they do things their own way. They drink Kalimotxo and Pacharan. The match programme is written in Euskara first (ancestral Basque language), Spanish second.
Inside, the teamsheet lists the birthplaces of all the players. Nafarroa. Bizkaia (Biscay). Araba. Gipuzkoa. Nafarroa. Bizkaia. Bizkaia. Gipuzkoa. All provinces of the Basque Country. Only Aymeric Laporte (France) and Fernando Amorebieta (Venezuela) have birthplaces outside the seven Basque provinces. Jonas Ramalho, the club’s first black player, descended from an Angolan father and Basque mother, is from Bizkaia.
On matchday a certain energy fills the air. One club cities like Newcastle have it too, but this is different. Athletic Bilbao is the personification of Basque life and what it means to be Basque. “A Bilbao without San Mamés would be like Paris without the Eiffel Tower,” the French former Bilbao coach Luis Fernandez once quipped.
“Es un sentimiento”
Almost everyone I spoke to leading up to kick-off gave the same answer when I asked them to sum up Athletic Bilbao. “Es un sentimiento”. It’s a feeling. A way of life.
“We are a race, a family,” said Andoni, a 29-year-old matchgoing fan. “You’re Athletic from birth until death. You carry the club in your heart. We are all from here, we’re all Basque. That creates a different sentiment to teams like Real Madrid or Barcelona who just want to win. We want to win, of course, but the feeling at Athletic is unique.”
Of course there is a flipside to Athletic’s cantera policy. The idea of a club excluding players based on where they come from could be interpreted as restrictive and cliquish – discriminatory even. That wasn’t the feeling I got from my time in Bilbao however. Far from it.
Personally I was received with a warmth and generosity that left me almost overwhelmed. Supporters who I had known for no longer than a few minutes went out of their way to help me find a ticket.
They plied us with rounds of kalimotxo (a traditional Basque drink mixing coke and red wine) and refused our offers to pay. Even after the game, people we had exchanged but a few words with in the street earlier came up to us asking of our well-being, wondering if we managed to find a ticket and did we enjoy the game.
Kalimotxo! Traditional Basque drink
Monro Bryce, an ex-patriate Real Mallorca season ticket holder from Scotland, was at San Mamés for the second time and was wholesome in his praise for Athletic Bilbao. “These are the best supporters in Spanish football by a mile,” he told Just Football.
One Mallorca fan, who had travelled with his 77-year-old father to see San Mamés for the first time, was so overwhelmed by the friendliness of his hosts that he wrote a thankyou letter to an Athletic fansite.
“La manera inglesa” – The English way
Old and creaking, the inside of San Mamés is very much like an old school English football ground. Indeed, Athletic have a reputation as being the closest thing in Spain to an English football club.
Their history backs this up too; Athletic have had several English managers including the famous Freddie Pentland, a revered figure and one of the most successful managers in the club’s history. La manera inglesa (the English way) is a style of football adopted by many Athletic managers since.
40,000 supporters cheered Athletic on to a 2-1 victory against Real Mallorca, a result which all but saw them safe for another season, maintaining their ‘never-relegated’ status. The new stadium, San Mames Barria, cost around €200million to build and will hold over 53,000. Athletic’s win over Mallorca ensures it will showcase top-flight football in its inaugural year.
“This weekend we must all make sure San Mames roars and trembles,” wrote Arantza Garcés, a journalist for the Basque sports newspaper Beste Bat ahead of the famous old ground’s penultimate league game – a sentiment that doubtless applies also to the last ever league game against Levante on Sunday.
“We must make ourselves heard so that not only Basques remember La Catedral. Wherever you may be, this stadium will always be part of the history of Bilbao. Adios, San Mames. Adios.”
The arch from the old ground is on the move, apparently to Lezama where the club train:
Bunch of racists.
The arch from the old ground is on the move, apparently to Lezama where the club train:
cool - nice to keep a bit of history.
The new ground gets its first match this Monday.
When they originally said one of the stands wouldn't be finished when they move in I hadn't realised quite what they meant.
When they originally said one of the stands wouldn't be finished when they move in I hadn't realised quite what they meant.
Copa del Rey won - after 40 years (& 13 years after the OP)
Ye bumping an old thread but a worthy occasion!
Congratulations! Finally! .Apparently they are delaying the celebrations and the barge until Thursday.
That looks amazing!!! Always fancied a trip to Bilbao to take in a match and have a mooch about, meant to be a great place to visit
Good for them, pretty hard to win when you're a selling club and can't do big money transfers on principle.
I went a few years back, it's a great city. Definitely worth a trip.
Happy for them. They lost two Copa Del Rey finals in a row and before that a Europa League final. I'm glad they finally have a trophy after 40 years
*major trophy*
They've won a bunch of supercups in the interim
They've won a bunch of supercups in the interim
I found this article interesting from a couple of days ago.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/68717176
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/68717176
Very happy for them.
Thanks for posting that. Deserve their success. They have wonderful parents.
That is so touching.
The Williams brothers are a great story and an important step for Athletic to finally have some high profile non-white players as there had been accusations of racism/xenophobia with the 'Basques only' policy in the past
It means more?
Just been following this on their facebook page. Better than the usual opened top bus ride.