The 1902–03 Catalan Football Championship was the 3rd staging of the Championship of Catalonia. This season was peculiar because it comprised two different competitions held the same year. Due to disagreements between the reigning champion of the tournament,

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

, and some of the clubs invited, in 1902–03 two parallel competitions were held: an "official", the

Copa Macaya The Hispania Athletic Club Tournament–Alfonso Macaya Cup, popularly known as the Copa Macaya, was a Association football, football competition contested by clubs from Catalonia which ran from 1900 until 1903, disappearing at the same time of its ...

organized by Hispania AC and an "unofficial", the Copa Barcelona organized by FC Barcelona. Both are currently recognized as official by the

RFEF The Royal Spanish Football Federation (; RFEF) is the governing body of football in Spain. Founded on 29 September 1913, it is based in La Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas, a municipality near Madrid. RFEF organizes the national cup competitio ...

Copa Macaya

Summary

The third and last edition of the Macaya Cup was to be contested by 5 teams: Club Espanyol, Hispania AC, FC Barcelona,

Club Universitari Club may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Club'' (magazine) * Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character * Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards * Club music * "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea'' Brands and enterprises * ...

and

FC Internacional The Futbol Club Internacional, commonly referred to a was as FC Internacional, was a football team based in Barcelona, Spain. Founded in 1901, FC Internacional had an "impasse" in its activities after the 1905–06 academic year, resuming them in ...

. The early resignations of Barcelona and Universitari were a severe blow to the competition, which turned it into a simple triangular tournament. In the end, Espanyol was the champion after beating Hispania 3–1 in a tiebreaker, with

Gustavo Green Gustavo Gren Córdoba (10 May 1880 – 9 November 1965), better known as Gustavo Green, was a Spanish Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward for FC Barcelona and RCD Espanyol. After spending his ...

netting twice. Remarkably, Green won all three editions of the

with three different clubs (Hispania, Barça, and Español).

Table

Results

Play-off

This championship was extremely competitive, in fact, Club Espanyol and Hispania AC finished level on points at 6, which meant that the title had to be decided in a playoff match that was held a few months later.

Statistics

Top Scorers

Copa Barcelona

Summary

After their 2–0 win over Hispania AC in the Copa Macaya was declared invalid for fielding an ineligible player, thus losing two points, FC Barcelona withdrew from the tournament as the club considered the decision totally unfounded and unfair. The club then broke its relations with the Gymnastics Federation and decides to organize a tournament of their own: The Copa Barcelona. Barça was able to pull this off because the club was clearly the most powerful and best organized club in Catalonia and one of the best in Spain, just like

Madrid FC Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

had done in the capital with the

1902 Copa de la Coronación The 1902 Copa de la Coronación (''Coronation Cup'' in English) was a football competition in honour of the coronation of Alfonso XIII of Spain. The Royal Spanish Football Federation does not recognize it as the first season of the Copa del Rey, w ...

. All the clubs of the city of Barcelona were invited, including the ones who were contesting the Copa Macaya, and the response from the clubs was much greater than expected, registering up to eleven teams, all of them from Barcelona, although three had to withdraw (

X Sporting Club The X Sporting Club, officially founded as Football Club X, was a football team based in Barcelona, Spain, which existed during the years 1902 and 1908. They won the Catalan championship three times in a row between 1905 and 1908. X Sporting Club ...

, Universitary SC and FC Catalònia) before the end of the tournament. The other five participating teams were Català FC,

Irish FC The Irish Football Club, commonly referred to as Irish FC, was a football team based in Barcelona, Spain, which existed from 1901 until its dissolution in the autumn of 1903. Great figures emerged from Irish FC, such as Carles Comamala, Juli Mar ...

Iberia FC The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...

and Salut FC. The Copa Barcelona is also considered an official tournament nowadays, being later recognized as the fourth edition of the Catalan Championship. So two rival competitions were organized (similar to the

1910 Events January * January 6 – Abé people in the French West Africa colony of Côte d'Ivoire rise against the colonial administration; the rebellion is brutally suppressed by the military. * January 8 – By the Treaty of Punakha, t ...

and

1913 Events January * January – Joseph Stalin travels to Vienna to research his ''Marxism and the National Question''. This means that, during this month, Stalin, Hitler, Trotsky and Tito are all living in the city. * January 3 &ndash ...

editions of the

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

), and while Club Español won the third and last edition of the Copa Macaya after beating Hispania AC by 3–1 in the title-deciding play-off, Barcelona won the Copa Barcelona after a tough fight with Club Español, with whom he drew 2–2 both home and away, hedging out in the end by just two points. The tournament's board offers prizes to all participants thanks to the financial collaboration of the members of FC Barcelona, with contributions of at least two pesetas and forty cents each. All participants had a prize: A Cup valued at 250 pesetas for the winner; medals for the first three; a lineman's flag for the fourth; a regulation

ball A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but sometimes ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used for s ...

for fifth;

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

gloves for the sixth; a bellows for the seventh and a

whistle A whistle is a musical instrument which produces sound from a stream of gas, most commonly air. It is a type of Fipple, fipple flute, and may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a s ...

for the last. The prizes may seem ridiculous, in view of today, but at that time it was quite a gesture of greatness for the tournament's board, since these objects were not easy to obtain and were highly valued. Joan Gamper was the star of the tournament and its top goal scorer with 21 goals, netting a 9-goal haul against

on 1 February 1903 and scoring the winner (0–1) against Hispania AC on 19 April 1903.

Table

;Notes * Day 6: Iberia conceded the points due to the death of Ramon Irla i Serra, father of the president and captain of the club. * Day 8: Salut and Internacional gave up the points. * Day 11: all three games were suspended due to rain. Irish, Iberia and Salut conceded the points. * Day 15: Iberia conceded the points due to the death of the mother of the player Castillo. * Day 16: Salut gave up the points for Espanyol to be playing in the

in Madrid. * Day 17: Hispania played with the second team to allow the first to contest the final of the Copa Macaya against Club Espanyol.

Results

The list below only includes the matches played by Barcelona due to a lack of information about the remaining games. * Not counted because X Sporting Club withdrew from the competition.

Statistics

Top Scorers

References

External links

Federació Catalana de Futbol
{{DEFAULTSORT:1902-03 Catalan Football Championship Copa Catalunya seasons 1902–03 in Spanish football

Copa Macaya

Summary

Table

Results

Play-off

Statistics

Top Scorers

Copa Barcelona

Summary

Table

Results

Statistics

Top Scorers

See also

References

External links