The Royal Football Federation of the Principality of Asturias ( es, Real Federación de Fútbol del Principado de Asturias; RFFPA) is the federation responsible for managing

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

in the

Principality of Asturias Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensiv ...

. Its current president is Maximino Martínez Suárez. RFFPA manages Asturian leagues from

Tercera División Tercera División ( en, Third Division) was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segunda División'', and the semi-professional ''Segunda Di ...

(Group 2) to the Regional lower divisions, the Regional stage of the Copa Federación and the Autonomous team, which plays in the

UEFA Regions' Cup The UEFA Regions' Cup is a football competition for amateur teams in Europe, run by UEFA. It was held for the first time in 1999 and has been played biennially since. The 2019 champions are the Lower Silesia team from Poland. The competition was ...

History

The current RFFPA started in 1913 with the creation of the first autonomous federation. It consisted of six teams and has been chaired by several presidents. On 21 December, in that same year, the RFFPA received the official backing of the

Spanish Football Federation The Royal Spanish Football Federation ( es, Real Federación Española de Fútbol; RFEF) is the governing body of football in Spain. It is based in La Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas, a municipality near Madrid. It was founded on 14 October 1909 ...

, authorizing the use by the newly created body Cantabrian Federation of Football Club. On 22 November 1916, the Spanish Federation decided that Santander resign from the Northern Federation and be integrated into the Cantabrian Federation, until 1918 when it returned to its former Federation, with 28 May of that year being when the Assembly National Federation agreed to change the name of the Cantabrian Federation of Asturian Regional Federation of Football Clubs. On 30 June 1919 due to the reform of its Constitution and Bylaws, the RFFPA expands its sports district to join the federation the provinces of León,

Palencia Palencia () is a city of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Palencia. Located in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, in the northern half o ...

and later those of Zamora and

Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of t ...

. It changed its name on 6 August 1933 to the Asturian Federation Cup, and in May 1941 to underwent a new transformation to become Astur-Montañesa Federation Cup, which governed the sport in good order the provinces of Asturias, León, Palencia,

Santander Santander may refer to: Places * Santander, Spain, a port city and capital of the autonomous community of Cantabria, Spain * Santander Department, a department of Colombia * Santander State, former state of Colombia * Santander de Quilichao, a m ...

, Burgos, Zamora and

Salamanca Salamanca () is a city in western Spain and is the capital of the Province of Salamanca in the autonomous community of Castile and León. The city lies on several rolling hills by the Tormes River. Its Old City was declared a UNESCO World Heritag ...

, until at last, in 1952, the RFFPA was restored to the Asturian Federation denomination with only the province of Asturias. In 1985, under Decree 71/1985 of the Concierge of Education, Culture and Sport, RFFPA becomes the current Football Federation of Asturias. This was the most important date in recent years because it allowed the acquisition of legal personality to enable a territorial assembly legislation, which since 1986 has stipulated that its own Rules and Regulations, whose obvious advantages are reflected in the processes arising from natural or legal persons who depend on our territorial federative organization, the ETF, solely and exclusively on those competitions in excess of the Asturias principality territory. The average weekly meetings are 500, which in quantity are very difficult to overcome in terms of the population of the region. Appearing in recent years are new forms of soccer like futbol 7 and

women's soccer 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 ...

, as well as the specialty of indoor football, which have gained important steps to become fully integrated into the organization and the federal competition entity with the power and sufficient conditions equal to the rest of the members. As regards to its coaching staff, there are the School Committee of Referees, Coaches and School Committee, indoor football Referees Technical Committee, which are well targeted and developed within the organization's Regulations. It is fair to point out the synchronism between them and the Federation itself, with optimal results in the operation of schools by holding regular courses and degrees resulting in both coaches and referees. Since April 1977 HRH Felipe de Borbón,

Prince of Asturias Prince or Princess of Asturias ( es, link=no, Príncipe/Princesa de Asturias; ast, Príncipe d'Asturies) is the main substantive title used by the heir apparent or heir presumptive to the monarchy of Spain, throne of Spain. According to the Sp ...

,Una Federación Real
Royal Asturias Football Federation holds the honorary presidency of the Football Federation of Asturias.

Competitions

The Royal Asturias Football Federation organises the following competitions: *

, group 2 *

Divisiones Regionales de Fútbol in Asturias The Divisiones Regionales de Fútbol in the Community of Asturias, organized by Real Federación de Fútbol del Principado de Asturias: *Primera RFFPA, formerly Regional Preferente de Asturias (Level 6 of the Spanish football pyramid) *Segunda RFFP ...

* Women's regional league *

Copa Federación de España (Asturias tournament) The Asturias tournament is the previous round of the Copa RFEF in Asturias. Organized by the Royal Asturias Football Federation, the Asturian teams in Segunda División B and the best teams of the Tercera División (Group 2) non qualified to the ...

Champions

Tercera División

In bold, champions and runners-up that promoted to

Segunda División B Segunda División B ( en, Second Division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish Foot ...

Notable clubs affiliated with RFFPA

;

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

Oviedo Oviedo (; ast, Uviéu ) is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain and the administrative and commercial centre of the region. It is also the name of the municipality that contains the city. Oviedo is located ap ...

Sporting Gijón Sporting may refer to: *Sport, recreational games and play * Sporting (neighborhood), in Alexandria, Egypt Sports clubs *AC Sporting, a football club from Beirut, Lebanon * Alexandria Sporting Club, a sports club from Alexandria, Egypt *Real Sport ...

;

Langreo Langreo (; ast, Llangréu) is a municipality and town in northern Spain, in Asturias. It is the 4th largest town of Asturias with 43,000 inhabitants. Langreo is located in the centre of Asturias, approximately south-east of Oviedo. It was an im ...

* Marino Luanco ; Segunda División Pro (women) *

; Primera Nacional (women) *

Gijón Gijón () or () is a city and municipality in north-western Spain. It is the largest city and municipality by population in the autonomous community of Asturias. It is located on the coast of the Cantabrian Sea in the Bay of Biscay, in the cent ...

Presidents

International referees from the RFFPA

* Mariano Medina Iglesias *

Manuel Díaz Vega Manuel Díaz Vega (born 1 September 1954 in Salas, Asturias) is a Spanish retired football referee. He officiated one match in both the 1994 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 1996. He also refereed the 1996 UEFA Champions League Final between Juven ...

Manuel Mejuto González Manuel Enrique Mejuto González (born 16 April 1965) is a Spanish former football referee. He is best known for refereeing the 2005 UEFA Champions League Final between Liverpool and Milan. He also officiated two matches in the Euro 2004 in Po ...

* César Muñiz Fernández

References

External links

* {{Authority control

Asturias Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensiv ...

Football in Asturias Sports organizations established in 1915 1915 establishments in Spain Organisations based in Spain with royal patronage