Athletic Club Femenino B is a Spanish

women's association football Women's association football, more commonly known simply as women's football or women's soccer, is a team sport of association football when played by women only. It is played at the professional level in multiple countries and 176 national te ...

team based in

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

, in the autonomous community of the

Basque Country Basque Country may refer to: * Basque Country (autonomous community), as used in Spain ( es, País Vasco, link=no), also called , an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain (shown in pink on the map) * French Basque Country o ...

, Spain. Founded in 2002, it is the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

Athletic Club Femenino Athletic Club Femenino is the women's football section of Athletic Bilbao, competing in Liga F. Athletic is one of the most successful women's teams in Spain, with five championships. Just as with the men's team, their official policy is to sign ...

, and currently plays in the

Primera Federación The Primera Federación, formerly known as Primera División RFEF, is the third tier of the Spanish football league system beginning with the 2021–22 season. It is administered by the Royal Spanish Football Federation. It is below the top tw ...

, playing their home matches at the

Lezama Facilities The Lezama Facilities ( eu, Lezamako Kirol-instalakuntzak, es, Instalaciones de Lezama), is the training ground and academy of the Primera Division club Athletic Bilbao. Located in the Lezama village around 10 km east of Bilbao, it was opened i ...

. Reserve teams in

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play in the same league system as the senior team, rather than in a reserve team league. They must play at least one level below their main side, and thus Athletic B are ineligible for promotion to the

Primera División Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera, Venezuelan musician, compos ...

and cannot play in the

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History

In 2002,

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club ( eu, Bilboko Athletic Kluba; es, Athletic Club de Bilbao), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao or just Athletic, is a professional Association football, football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country (autonomous com ...

introduced a

women's section The women's page (sometimes called home page or women's section) of a newspaper was a section devoted to covering news assumed to be of interest to women. Women's pages started out in the 19th century as society pages and eventually morphed into ...

to their football activities in, absorbing a local club ''Leioa EFT''. At the same time they introduced a women's reserve team (which had been established by Leioa the previous year) with the aim of developing players for the senior side. After a single season in the Basque provincial league, the B-team was promoted to the second tier – then known as the Primera Nacional – where they have remained since, winning their regional group in the competition four times (most recently in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

) but being ineligible for promotion. Athletic B, whose players are usually between 16 and 21 years of age, are also regular participants in the '' Copa Vasca'', a regional tournament for lower-league teams, and have won the trophy six times. Below the reserve level Athletic have a C-team, introduced in 2019 and quickly promoted to the Basque provincial league, and a girls' ''cadet'' (under-15) team, introduced in 2017 and competing at local youth level. In common with all other teams fielded by the club, only players who meet their recruitment policy of having a connection to the 'greater Basque Country' are eligible to join.A new Cathedral: Athletic Club’s move to a new San Mamés
Simon Lloyd, Joe.co.uk

Season to season

As Leioa EFT B

As Athletic Club B

Notable graduates

''Note: this list contains players who have appeared in at least 50 games for the

first team First team may refer to: Sports * First team (association football), the colloquial name given to the most senior team fielded by a football club * The First Team, the first players known to have played the sport of basketball * First Team All-A ...

or another top-level club. Current players in bold.''

References

External links

*
Athletic Club B
at ''Txapeldunak'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Athletic Femenino B Spanish reserve football teams Association football clubs established in 2002 2002 establishments in Spain Football clubs in the Basque Country (autonomous community) Women's football clubs in Spain Athletic Club Femenino Segunda Federación (women) clubs Primera Federación (women) clubs