Football in Spain


, commonly known as football or soccer, is the most popular sport in Spain, followed by basketball and tennis. Football is a widespread passion among the people of Spain. Football is the sport with the most registered players, and most registered clubs among all Spanish sport federations according to data issued by the sports administration of Spain’s government in 2019.
In a survey of sports habits of the Spanish population made in 2010, football was the second most popular recreational sport practised by the population. A total of 75.9% of people said they had ever bought tickets to attend a football match. In addition, a total of 67.3% of the people said that they saw all, almost all, many, or some of the football matches broadcast on television. In another survey made in 2014, the practice of football decreased to 14% of the population, being overtaken by other sports, such as running, cycling and swimming for recreation. However, in this survey football was still the sport that interests the majority of Spain’s people. A total of 67% of the population said they were fans or had sympathy for a particular club. In addition, 74.9% said they watched, whenever possible, the matches broadcast on television regarding their favorite teams; and 42.4% had, flags, badges or objects of their favorite teams. Data of this survey confirmed the widespread impression that most of Spain’s people are supporters of Real Madrid or FC Barcelona, and the other teams have fewer supporters nationwide, as Atlético de Madrid, Valencia CF, Athletic Bilbao or Sevilla FC.
A relationship between football, politics, identity and attitudes towards regionalism in Spain has also been reported.
The Royal Spanish Football Federation is the national governing body, and it organises two Cup competitions, and the Spain national football team. The Liga de Fútbol Profesional , integrated by a total of 42 football clubs, forms part of the Royal Spanish Football Federation but has autonomy in its organisation and functioning. It is responsible for the organisation of state football leagues, in coordination with RFEF.
The Spanish national football team have won the FIFA World Cup once, and has also been successful in the UEFA European Championship and the Olympic tournament. The biggest success achieved by the Spain national football team was the historic treble winning three tournaments in a row: UEFA European Championship in 2008, FIFA World Cup in 2010, and UEFA European Championship in 2012. The men's national teams of Spain, in all categories, have won a total of 26 titles in FIFA, UEFA, and Olympic tournaments.
The First Division of the Liga de Fútbol Profesional, commonly known in the English-speaking world as La Liga, is one of the strongest football leagues in both Europe and the world. At club level, the Spanish football clubs have won a total of 66 international tournaments.
They are the most successful in different current European competitions, such as UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, and UEFA Europa League; and they also were the most successful in the extinct Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.
The characteristic football style of play developed by Spanish national football team during its most successful time was Tiki-taka. This football style is characterised by possessing the ball for large portions of the game and moving the ball quickly from one player to the next, with short and quick passes, keeping the ball away from your opponent, and then to deliver an incisive pass to score a goal.
Professional football in Spain is a sociocultural event that make a significant contribution to the Spanish economy in terms of both demand and supply. In economic terms, during 2013 professional football generated more than €7.6 billion including direct, indirect and induced effects, representing 0.75% of Spanish GPD. Moreover, as a result of financial crisis in the last years, many Spanish football clubs in the top two divisions have been facing serious economic troubles due to pay the bank debts. In addition, the European Union authorities have warned to Spanish authorities in order to halt public funding of debt-ridden clubs.
Spain national futsal team is one of the strongest teams in the world, being six times champion in the UEFA Futsal Championship and two times champion in the FIFA Futsal World Championship.

History

Modern football was introduced to Spain in the late 19th century by a combination of mostly British immigrant workers, visiting sailors and Spanish students coming from Britain.
The oldest football clubs in Spain are Recreativo de Huelva and Sevilla FC. Although Gimnàstic de Tarragona was formed in 1886, the club did not form an actual football team until 1914. The first official football game played in Spain took place in Seville on 8 March 1890 at the Tablada Hippodrome. Sevilla FC played against Recreativo de Huelva. With the exception of two Spanish players on the Huelva team and another two players on the Seville team, all the players on both sides were British. Sevilla FC won 2–0.
In the Basque Country during the early 1890s, British shipyard workers and miners formed the Bilbao Football Club and Basque students returning from Britain founded the Athletic Club in 1898. This early British influence was reflected in the use of English names such as Recreation Club, Athletic Club and Football Club.
In Catalonia, which had the most developed industry in Spain, there was an important British colony. The first games played by Britishmen and Catalan people who had studied in the United Kingdom were documented in 1882 in Barcelona. However, the first official and registered football club was Palamós FC in 1898. The Swiss Hans Gamper founded FC Barcelona on 29 November 1899. Other clubs were founded in 1900, such as Sant Andreu, Hispania FC and the Sociedad Española de Football. The Catalan Football Federation, responsible for administering football in Catalonia, was the first football association founded in Spain. It was formed on 11 November 1900 as the Football Association of Catalonia. The Catalan Football Federation organised the Catalan football championship that was the first football competition in Spain.
In Madrid, the first games were promoted by Institución Libre de Enseñanza , an educational and cultural centre. The first club of Madrid was Football Club Sky, founded in 1897, but the club separated into two new clubs in 1890. Then, several clubs also emerged in Madrid, most notably Madrid Football Club, founded in 1902 by Catalan brothers Juan and Carlos Padrós.
There are several curious cases, like the foundation of Locomotoras Albacete Balompié, the oldest of the clubs which would eventually merge with others into the later Albacete Balompié. Locomotoras Albacete Balompié takes off after the opening of a steam locomotive workshop in Albacete by Talgo and the Lancanshire and Yorkshire Railway Company. The latter one's main engineer, John Hulse would have been the link who brough to La Mancha the Sheffield Rules.
The Copa del Rey competition was founded in 1903, one year after a previous football tournament named Coronation Cup. It was Spain's football national Championship from 1903 until the establishment of the League Championship in 1928.
The Spanish Federation of Football Clubs was formed in 1909, but there were discrepancies between the member clubs years later, and some of the clubs formed other association called Royal Spanish Union of Clubs of Football. Finally, the two associations reached an agreement and the Royal Spanish Football Federation was founded in 1913, which allowed the Spanish football to enter in FIFA. In these years, Athletic was the most dominant club in the country, and the first idols in Spain began to appear, like Pichichi and Paulino Alcántara.
The Spain national team was created in 1920 on the occasion of the dispute of the Olympic Games in Antwerp. The importance of the success of the Spain national team in the Olympic games, which won the silver medal, was huge in the development of football as mass social event in Spain. The interest on football grew, more people attended to the stadiums, more information about football appeared in the newspapers, and football was used as element of national prestige and political propaganda.
After the Olympic triumph, football was more popular among Spanish fans, the attendances to the stadiums increased, and the pressure of professionalism grew. Spanish football turned professional in 1925. An agreement between several clubs was made on 23 November 1928 which officially established Spain's national football division, and the birth of the Spanish League. The first league championship began in 1929.
The Spanish Civil War brought disruption to the national competitions. Although the Spanish League was suspended, the Catalan and Valencian clubs continued contesting in the Mediterranean League in early 1937. Barcelona later toured Mexico and the United States, raising support for the Spanish Republic.
The Spanish League and the Cup were restored in the 1939–40 season after Civil War had ended. Francisco Franco’s regime, a fascist political system, began to use football as a propaganda tool for the new regime. In 1941, as part of his policy of eradicating regional identities, the Franco's regime banned the use of non-Castilian names. As a result, many clubs that had chosen English prefixes previously, such as Athletic or Football club, had to amend their initial names, for other Castilian. The Catalan Championship was banned and the Catalan shield taken from FC Barcelona's badge. Spanish football began to rebuild slowly after the War, but Spain's isolated international position meant they did not properly re-enter International football until 1950. Later, Franco's regime was able to use the football, based on the European triumphs of Real Madrid in the 1950s for political purposes. In this manner, Real Madrid was used as a Spanish brand of success to promote Spain’s image abroad, as well as the pride of being Spanish in the country itself.
Spain was selected as host of the 1982 FIFA World Cup.
Until the 1984–85 season, the Royal Spanish Football Federation was responsible for organizing the league tournament. Since then, the competition was organized by the Liga de Fútbol Profesional, an independent body which was formed at the initiative of the clubs themselves after disagreements with the RFEF regarding the management professionalization and economic division of the League benefits.
Since the entry into force of Spanish Law 10/1990, almost all of the clubs competing professionally in Spain are actually companies under the legal status of sports companies, whose ownership is in the hands of its shareholders. Only three professional clubs kept its original structure, such as sports clubs directly controlled by their members.
After the appearance of private television in Spain, football clubs hugely increased its income thanks to the lucrative contracts to broadcast matches on television. This allowed them to hire many of the best players in the world, but most of the clubs also increased vastly their spending. In the last years La Liga is living in a big financial turmoil. Although the two big powerful clubs, Real Madrid and Barcelona, are at the top in Forbes' football rich list, the rest of Spanish clubs are weighed down by a colossal debt around €4.1 billion. For this reason, most of the clubs had to cut their budgets drastically.

Spanish national football team (''La Roja'')

Within Spain, regional teams, most notably the football team of Catalonia, the football team of Basque Country, and even the football team of Galicia, began to compete against each other from 1915 onwards. Despite not being officially recognised by FIFA, these regional teams still occasionally play friendly games with some national team players playing for both teams. Some autonomous governments and social sectors in the historical communities prefer to call their regional teams as national team, while claiming to participate in international tournaments.
. 12 July 2010.
The Spain national team, commonly referred to as La selección or La Roja, made their international debut at the 1920 Olympic Games in Belgium and came away with the silver medal. Since then the Spanish national team has participated in a total of fifteen out of twenty one FIFA World Cups and nine out fourteen UEFA European Championship. Historically, the Spanish national team did not achieve important results, in terms of trophies or develop an attractive playing style. Surprisingly, this fact contrasted with the huge success obtained by the main Spanish football clubs at the European level. Nevertheless, the triumphs of Spanish national team in 2008 and 2012 European Championship, and in 2010 FIFA World Cup, with an attractive playing style, marked a point of inflection that divided the history of Spanish national football team in two parts.
The Spanish national football team has been the winner of FIFA Team of Year in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, as well as the winner of Laureus World Sports Award for Team of the Year in 2011.
The Spanish national football team have won four trophies in FIFA and UEFA tournaments: one FIFA World Cup in 2010, and three UEFA European Championship in 1964, 2008 and 2012. In addition, it was runner-up in the UEFA European Championship in 1984 and in the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2013.
The Spain national under-23 team won the gold medal in 1992 Olympic tournament and the silver medal in 2000.
The Spain national football team won the gold medal at the Mediterranean Games in 2005, 2007, and 2018, the silver medal in 1955, and the bronze medal in 1963 and 1967.
In addition, the honours list includes numerous titles at junior level teams:
UEFA European Under-21 Championship in 1986, 1998, 2011, 2013, and 2019.
FIFA U-20 World Cup in 1999.
UEFA European Under-19 Championship in 1995, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2011 2012, 2015, and 2019.
UEFA European Under-17 Championship in 1986, 1988, 1991, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2007, 2008, and 2017.
1999 Meridian Cup.
Spain have won the Maurice Burlaz Trophy, the prize awarded to the national association that has achieved the best results in UEFA's men's youth competitions over the previous two seasons, in 1994, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2011.
A short list of some of the top Spanish football players which have ever played for the Spanish national team include:
Goalkeepers: Ricardo Zamora, Antoni Ramallets, José Ángel Iribar, Luis Arconada, Andoni Zubizarreta, Iker Casillas, Víctor Valdés, David de Gea
Defenders: Jacinto Quincoces, Joan Segarra, Jesús Garay, José Santamaría, Feliciano Rivilla, José Antonio Camacho, Antonio Maceda, Rafael Gordillo, Miguel Ángel Nadal, Fernando Hierro, Abelardo Fernández, Carles Puyol, Sergio Ramos, Gerard Piqué, Jordi Alba
Midfielders: Josep Samitier, Martín Marculeta, Leonardo Cilaurren, José Luis Panizo, Antonio Puchades, Alfredo Di Stéfano, Luis del Sol, Luis Suárez, Luis Aragonés, Jesús María Pereda, Pirri, Jesús María Zamora, Míchel, José Luis Pérez Caminero, Luis Enrique, Pep Guardiola, Julen Guerrero, Gaizka Mendieta, Xavi, Xabi Alonso, Andrés Iniesta, Santi Cazorla, David Silva, Cesc Fàbregas, Juan Mata, Sergio Busquets
Forwards: Pichichi, Paulino Alcántara, Luis Regueiro, Isidro Lángara, César, Telmo Zarra, Agustín Gaínza, Estanislau Basora, László Kubala, Ferenc Puskás, Francisco Gento, Amancio Amaro, Santillana, Juanito, Quini, Roberto López Ufarte, Emilio Butragueño, Julio Salinas, Raúl, Fernando Morientes, David Villa, Fernando Torres

Football club competitions

Currently, the three most important competitions between clubs in Spain are La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Supercopa de España. Other extinct competitions were the League Cup, the Eva Duarte Cup and the President's Cup of the Spanish Football Federation. Up to a total of sixteen clubs have been winners of some of the official competitions in Spain at the highest level, and FC Barcelona is the most awarded club with seventy-four national titles,
The Spanish football league system consists of several leagues bound together hierarchically by promotion and relegation. In addition, Spanish Royal Federation Cup is a football competition for teams from the Segunda División B, the Tercera División and sometimes from the Preferente Regional who have failed to qualify or have been eliminated in the first round of the Copa del Rey.

The League (La Liga)

In April 1927, Álvaro Trejo, a director at Arenas Club de Getxo, first proposed the idea of a national league in Spain. After much debate about the size of the league and who would take part, the RFEF eventually agreed on the ten teams who would form the first Primera División in 1928. FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, Real Sociedad, Arenas Club de Getxo and Real Unión were all selected as previous winners of the Copa del Rey. Athletic Madrid, RCD Español and CE Europa qualified as Copa del Rey runners-up and Racing de Santander qualified through a knock-out competition against Sevilla FC. Barcelona was the first winner of the competition. Only three of the founding clubs, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao, have never been relegated from the Primera Division; six other clubs have never been below the top two tiers: Sevilla, Real Sociedad, Sporting de Gijón, Valencia, Espanyol and Atlético Madrid.'
Historically, some of the best football players in the world have played in the Spanish football league, including Ricardo Zamora, Josep Samitier, Alfredo Di Stéfano, Ladislav Kubala, Ferenc Puskás, Raymond Kopa, Héctor Rial, Telmo Zarra, Francisco Gento, Luis Suárez, Johan Cruyff, Diego Maradona, Bernd Schuster, Andoni Zubizarreta, Michael Laudrup, Hristo Stoichkov, Romário, Zinedine Zidane, Rivaldo, Ronaldo, Raúl, Ronaldinho, Carles Puyol, Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, Iker Casillas, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Lionel Messi, among others.
La Liga de Fútbol Profesional is the association responsible for administering the two professional football leagues in Spain. Professional Spanish football is divided into the Primera División and Segunda División. The First Division is also known as Liga Santander, for sponsorship reasons, while the Second Division is known as La Liga SmartBank. The First Division consists of 20 professional teams and the Second Division has 22. There are also lower Spanish national football divisions. Every year, the three lowest ranked teams in the First Division pass to the Second Division and the top three ranked teams in the Second Division pass to the First Division.
La Liga is one of the most popular professional sports leagues in the world. The average stadium attendance was 21,000 in the 2014–15 season, with a range of average attendance from 4,780 people in the stadium with the lowest average attendance to 77,632 people in the stadium with highest average attendance. In addition, La Liga is one of the most wealthiest professional sports leagues in the world by revenue.
In La Liga's 90-year history, Barcelona and Real Madrid have won 60 titles between them. Barcelona and Real Madrid are two fierce rivals clubs, and the matches between both two clubs are named as El Clásico''. Those football matches are one of the most viewed sports events in the world.
Although a total of 62 teams have competed in La Liga since its inception, only nine clubs have won the title: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, Valencia, Real Sociedad, Sevilla, Deportivo La Coruña, and Real Betis.

King's Cup (Copa del Rey)

The King's Cup is the oldest Spanish football competition organised by the Royal Spanish Football Federation. In 1902, Carlos Padrós, later president of Madrid FC, suggested a football competition to celebrate the coronation of Alfonso XIII. Four other teams entered the Copa del Ayuntamiento de Madrid, which would later develop into the Copa del Rey. These included Barcelona, Club Español de Fútbol, Club Bizcaya and New Foot-Ball de Madrid. The competition featured the first recorded game between Barcelona and Madrid FC, with the former emerging 3–1 winners. Club Bizcaya, which consisted of players from both Basque teams, eventually beat Barcelona in the final. Alfonso XIII subsequently became the patron of many Spanish football clubs, granting them permission to use "Real" in their names. Among the many clubs to add the prefix to their name was Madrid FC, which subsequently became Real Madrid.
Fourteen clubs have won the title: Barcelona, Athletic Bilbao, Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid, Valencia, Real Zaragoza, Sevilla, Espanyol, Real Union, Real Betis, Deportivo de La Coruña, Real Sociedad, Arenas Club de Getxo and Mallorca.

Spanish Supercup (Supercopa de España)

The Spanish Super Cup is a championship organised by Royal Spanish Football Federation and contested by the winners and runners-up of La Liga and the winners and runners-up of the Copa del Rey. The competition was founded in 1982.
Ten clubs have won the title: Barcelona, Real Madrid, Deportivo La Coruña, Atlético Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, Valencia, Zaragoza, Mallorca, Sevilla and Real Sociedad.

Spanish clubs in international competitions

The Spanish football clubs are very successful in international competitions. They are the most successful in different current European competitions, such as UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, and UEFA Europa League ; and they also were the most successful in the extinct Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.
They benefit a lot from their political and historical success as a colonial power. After the Big War, Spanish Football Clubs had their most prolific period of the century. Because their political and economical positioning during Civil War and Cold War they were able to win several UEFA Champions Leagues in a row. Real Madrid CF was the only club that managed to win the competition between 1956 and 1960. They were in a great position due to economical advantage and lack of competition. Most of the countries were still recovering from a long and devastating World War II and they were unable to participate in the competition due to financial or political reasons. France, Germany, England, Yugoslavia and Russia are only a part of the important countries that were unable to compete in the European Competitions for at least a decade. Real Madrid was the one who benefited and won the title 5 years in a row.
Therefore, the most successful club in international competitions is Real Madrid, followed by Barcelona in recent years. In addition, other Spanish clubs have also won titles in international tournaments, such as Valencia, Atlético Madrid, Sevilla, Zaragoza, Villarreal, Deportivo de La Coruña, Celta Vigo and Málaga.
Spanish football clubs hold different records in international competitions.
Real Madrid is the most successful club in the European Cup/UEFA Champions League. They have won 13 titles and were runners-up three times. Real Madrid is also the most successful club in the Intercontinental Cup and FIFA Club World Cup, with four titles.
Barcelona is the second most successful club in the FIFA Club World Cup, with three titles, and it is also the most successful club in the UEFA Super Cup. In addition, Barcelona became the first football club to win six out of six competitions in a single year completing the sextuple, and the first European club in history to achieve the continental treble twice.
Sevilla is the most successful club in the UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League, with five titles.
In total, the Spanish football clubs have won 74 international titles. Over the years, Spanish clubs have won the European Cups/Champions League 18 times, the UEFA Super Cup 14 times, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 7 times, the UEFA Europa League 11 times, the UEFA Intertoto Cup 7 times and the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup 6 times. In addition, Spanish clubs have also won the Intercontinental Cup 4 times, and the FIFA Club World Cup 7 times.

Women's football

Women's football is a minor sport in Spain. Unlike the men's football, women's football is an amateur sport in Spain.
However, in the recent years there is a growing social interest in women's football, which has led to an increase in economic investment. A record crowd for a European women's club football match was recorded at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium in Madrid on March 17, 2019 when 60,739 fans turned out to watch a game between Atlético Madrid and FC Barcelona; those attendance exceeded the previous record of 48,121 – also set in Spain earlier this year when Athletic Bilbao played Atletico Madrid at the San Mames stadium. Currently there are two national competitions, the League and the Copa de la Reina, in the semi-professional clubs involved structure.
The first teams and the first informal women's football competitions in Spain emerged in the 1970s, although they were not officially recognized by the Royal Spanish Football Federation until 1980, with the founding of the National Women's Football Committee. The first official national competition was the Championships of Spain, established in 1983. The women's national league began to dispute the 1988-89 season.
The Spain women's national football team has been qualified twice in the FIFA Women's World Cup, and twice in the UEFA Women's Championship. Its youth division have had success in recent times. The Spain women's national under-19 football team won the UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship in 2004, 2017, and 2018. The Spain women's national under-17 football team won the UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship in 2010, 2011, 2015, and 2018, as well as the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in 2018.