The Basque Country tournament is an annual

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

competition held in Spain which serves as the preliminary round of the ''

Copa Federación de España The Copa Real Federación Española de Fútbol, popularly known as the Copa Federación (Federation Cup) or Copa RFEF, is a Spanish football competition organised by the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF). It has been held since the 1993−9 ...

(Copa RFEF)'' in the Basque Country (''Euskadi'') region. Organised by the

Basque Football Federation The Basque Football Federation (, EFF; , FVF) is the body responsible for managing association football in the Basque Country autonomous region. Its offices are in Bilbao (in the Otxarkoaga-Txurdinaga district). The federation manages several le ...

, the participating clubs in the tournament are drawn from the

Tercera División Tercera División () was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Until 1977, it was the third tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segund ...

(Group 4), as well as local clubs in the

Segunda División B Segunda División B (English: 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 ...

who have not qualified for the season's

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 ...

, including

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

s and

farm team In sports, a farm team (also referred to as farm system, developmental system, feeder team, or nursery club) is generally a Team sport, team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any s ...

s. Not all teams eligible take part each year. As the Copa RFEF is for lower division clubs, the top sides in the region such as

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club (; ), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao (), or simply Athletic, is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Southern Basque Country, Basque Country, Spain. They are known ...

and

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad ( ; ''Royal Society'') in English, and Erreala or Reala in Basque language, Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Donostia / San Sebastián, ...

have never entered the main competition or the qualifying phase. However,

Deportivo Alavés Deportivo Alavés, S.A.D. (; ''Sporting Alavés''), usually known as Alavés, is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Basque ...

have taken part in the national phase, and their B-team won the Basque tournament three years in a row from 2015.

Format

The regional tournament is usually played between July and October, the format depends on the number of registered teams, and the winner receives a €3,000 prize. The champion qualifies to the National phase of the Copa RFEF. At that point, losing teams from the first round of the Copa del Rey, usually including at least one Basque club, are also invited to the Copa RFEF, but often they decline to participate in order to concentrate on the league. The opening nationwide rounds pair entrants from either the same autonomous community or one nearby (such as

Navarre Navarre ( ; ; ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre, is a landlocked foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Autonomous Community, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and New Aquitaine in France. ...

Cantabria Cantabria (, ; ) is an autonomous community and Provinces of Spain, province in northern Spain with Santander, Cantabria, Santander as its capital city. It is called a , a Nationalities and regions of Spain, historic community, in its current ...

), so it is common for the Basque teams to eliminate each other.

History

The most successful Basque qualifier to the national phase was

Real Unión Real Unión Club, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Irun, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country, in the province of Gipuzkoa, near the border with France. Founded on 15 May 1915 it currently plays in Primera División RF ...

, who won the entire competition in

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, defeating

CD Castellón Club Deportivo Castellón, S.A.D. is a professional List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Castellón de la Plana, in the Valencian Community. Founded on 20 July 1922, it currently plays in , holding home games at ''Nou E ...

4–0 on aggregate.

SD Lemona Sociedad Deportiva Lemona was a Spanish football team based in Lemoa, in the autonomous community of Basque Country. Founded in 1923, it last played in Segunda División B – Group 2, holding home matches at '' Estadio Arlonagusia'', with a c ...

were finalists in 2011 and 2012, with the latter event producing a dramatic outcome: having lost the first leg away to

CD Binissalem Club Deportivo Binissalem is a Spanish football team based in Binissalem, in the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. Founded in 1914 it plays in , holding home games at '' Estadio Miquel Pons'', which holds 2,000 spectators. Season to ...

by a 5–0 score, Lemona turned the tie on its head at home, winning 6–1. They lost on

away goals The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

, being unable to add to their tally in the last 15 minutes of the match. Within a few months of the final, the club had dissolved due to financial problems. Lemona also have the best overall record in the qualifying tournament, winning five times in 16 years.

Notes

Champions

Editions with only one team registered not included in this ranking.

Previous competitions

From 1930 until 1987, Biscay and Gipuzkoa operated separate provincial competitions for their non-professional clubs, with the winners of each qualifying for the national '' Campeonato de Aficionados'', the predecessor to the ''Copa Federación''. The most successful team in Biscay was

Erandio Erandio is a town and Municipalities of Spain, municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country, northern Spain. History In 1415, during the War of the Bands, the ...

with 13 wins, far ahead of Indautxu on 6, while in Gipuzkoa

CD Logroñés Club Deportivo Logroñés, S.A.D. was a Spanish football team based in Logroño, in the autonomous community of La Rioja. Founded in 1940, it last played in '' Regional Preferente de La Rioja''. Due to financial problems, since 2009 the club ha ...

and

Mondragón Mondragón (in Basque: Arrasate) officially known as Arrasate/Mondragón, is a town and municipality in Gipuzkoa Province, Basque Country, Spain. Its population in 2015 was 21,933. Toponymy The current official name of the municipality is Arrasa ...

won four titles apiece.Spain - Campeonato Amateur de Vizcaya y Guipúzcoa 1930-1987

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (''RSSSF'') is an international organisation dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around ...

, 2 November 2018

References

External links

Basque Football Federation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Copa Federacion de Espana (Basque tournament) Football in the Basque Country (autonomous community) Copa Federación de España Basque football competitions