Athletic Club

Lore & Background

The date of the first meeting between the two clubs is a matter of debate. The final of the 1902 Copa de la Coronación was played between Barcelona and Club Biscaya (a combined team of Athletic Club and Bilbao FC, which merged the following year); Biscaya won the match 2–1. Athletic regard themselves as the successor to the Biscaya team and the Copa Coronación as the first edition of the Copa del Rey, including it with later wins in their official honours.

However, the Spanish Federation gives 1903 as the commencement date for the Copa del Rey, disregarding the previous year's tournament in its records, so it has never been fully established if they regard Biscaya and Athletic as the same club or not. Barcelona's team in the final also included players from Hispania AC, meaning theirs was also something of a combined force rather than a single club entity. Their first undisputed meeting was in the 1920 Copa del Rey Final held in Gijón, which Barcelona won 2–0.

Reader's Guide

The relationship between Athletic and Barcelona has historically been fairly healthy aside from certain periods when competitiveness became hostility, such as in the early 1980s. By the turn of the 21st century, the rivalry had largely become a historical concept due to the disparity in the fortunes of the clubs and the lack of a local element, but their frequent meetings in matches of importance, including four Copa del Rey finals and three Supercopa fixtures in a dozen seasons, restored some relevancy to the fixture.

Both clubs are owned by their socios and place great importance in developing local players through their cantera. They were among the last major clubs to adopt a commercial sponsor logo on their jerseys (Athletic doing so in 2008 and Barcelona three years later). These two clubs are the most successful clubs in their respective regions of the Basque Country and Catalonia, both regions who have more support for separatism than other parts of Spain.

As a result, these two clubs tend to identify themselves more so with regional culture than with Spain as a whole, such as with Athletic's adherence to a unique 'Basque only' player policy and Barcelona's self proclaimed commitment to Catalan independence and identity.

Did You Know?

• Athletic Bilbao's biggest win over Barcelona was 12–1 in 1931, with Bata scoring seven goals.
• Barcelona's coach in the 1953 Copa del Rey final, Ferdinand Daučík, later took over at Athletic and won trophies with both clubs.
• László Kubala suffered a serious knee injury inflicted by Athletic's Eneko Arieta in 1954.