Spanish Football History

    The association between Spanish soccer and Britain has a extended and memorable history going back way further than Posh and Becs. The game seems to come to Spain in the late Nineteenth century, spread by emigrant workers and Spanish students, returning from overseas. The oldest football club, Huelva Recreati on, was founded in 1889 by British workers of the Rio Tinto company. The first official match, staged in 1890, between Huelva and Colonia Ingelsa [a team made of employees of the local water works] caught up 20 Brits. Athletic Bilbao was, not unexpectedly then, founded with players late of the dockyards of Southampton and Portsmouth and Durham miners, as well as Basque students. The fast improving support for limited clubs, coupled with the expanding bar network, made away fixtures potential. As in England the Cup became the first club nationwide contest. In 1902 it was suggested a knock-out contest was held to mark Alfonso XIII’s coronation. This contest for 4 clubs from Madrid developed, in 1905, into the nationwide Copa del Rey. Alphonso’s significance in the game lead to support of several clubs, identifiable by the prefix‘Real.’

A description of the Home Internationals, La Selección, in progress in 1915. This was used as a way of picking the Olympic side. Catalan, Galician and Basque teams unmoving play today but are not recognized by FIFA, who are nothing, if not statistic in their viewpoint. Football could be a focus for the nationalist aspirations of Catalans. In 1925 the Barcelona crowd booed the Spanish National Anthem – The Royal March. Dictator Primo de Rivera congested the ground for six months [later reduced to three] and required the President, Joan Gamper to resign.Out of initiatives like the Catalan championship, nationwide football developed in the 1900’s and achieved completion in 1929, when La Liga was founded. In those daring days many English managers and administrators ended up in Spain. The British youth [and not so youth] exhausting Barcelona shirts after a quick trip to the Nou Camp are echoed in the club’s long English convention. Walter Wild was president of Barcelona between 1899 and 1901. Arthur Witty went from player to president in 1902. Barcelona was also managed by Jack Greenwell and Ralph Kirby in the 1910’s, 20’s and 30’s. Greenwell also managed Valencia in the 1933-4, Espanyol in the 20s and Peruvian national team in the 1930s. The list goes on. Steve Bulmer coached Irùn in the 1920s, Patrick O’Connell [ok, he’s Irish, but he was born in the United Kingdom] managed Santander, Real Betis and Oviedo and Arthur Johnson, managed Real Madrid from 1910 to 1920.

Of all these pioneers of the English way of messing about with a pig’s bladder, the one whose story should be better known is Fred Pentland, if for no other reason than the way that war kept on messing up his career. Frederick Beaconsfield Pentland was born in Wolverhampton in 1883. He worked as a gun maker’s supporter and played youth football in Birmingham before joining Blackpool professionally in 1903. A reasonably illustrious career saw him play for several clubs and collect 5 England caps. He ended his playing career with a year as Player-coach in Halifax in 1912, a brief spell as a player for Stoke in 1913.