The San Sebastián Recreation Club was the name of the

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 ...

section of the Real Club de Tenis de San Sebastián club based in

San Sebastián San Sebastián, officially known by the bilingual name Donostia / San Sebastián (, ), is a city and municipality located in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. It lies on the coast of the Bay of Biscay, from the France–Spain border ...

, Basque Country,

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. It was the first football club in the city and in 1905, they participated in 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 ...

History

The San Sebastián Recreation Club was founded on 28 August 1904 as part of a multi-sports club known as Real Club de Tenis de San Sebastián, which had numerous other sports such as

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

and

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

, but the most important of which being

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

, hence the entity's name. Football had been introduced to

in the early 1900s by students and workers returning from

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

, and this new sport soon gained a lot of followers in the city and among the young

athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

s of the Real Club de Tenis, hence the founding of the football section on 28 August 1904, being this the first formally established football club in San Sebastián.

1905 Copa del Rey

The Recreation Club then become the first club in the city, and also the first

Gipuzkoa Gipuzkoa ( , ; ; ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French department of Pyrénées-Atlantiqu ...

n club, to participate in a national championship, when it entered the 1905 Copa del Rey with a team that had the likes of

Juan Arzuaga Juan Sandalio Arzuaga Anitua (3 September 1880 – 26 August 1951) was a Spanish Association football, footballer who played as a Association football positions#Defender, defender for Athletic Bilbao, Athletic Club, and later a Referee (associati ...

and Alfonso Sena. The tournament was played in a triangle format with the finalists of the first-ever Copa del Rey final in

1903 Events January * January 1 – Edward VII is proclaimed Emperor of India. * January 10 – The Aceh Sultanate was fully annexed by the Dutch forces, deposing the last sultan, marking the end of the Aceh War that have lasted for al ...

, Madrid FC and Athletic Club, the power of

Spanish football Football is the most popular sport in Spain, with 61% of the population interested in it. Spain has some of the most influential teams in Europe (Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético de Madrid, Sevilla, Valencia, and others) as well as many playe ...

at the time. In the first match against the hosts, Madrid FC, they lost by 3–0, who then became champions after beating Athletic Club 1–0 in the second game, meaning that the third game between Recreation Club and Athletic would decide the runner-up, but the former refused to play for silver and went back to

Bilbao Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the Provinces of Spain, province of Biscay and in the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the List o ...

, so Recreation Club should appear as runner-up in the tournament. However, given that the decisive match of the tournament was the one between Madrid and Athletic, as recognized by the federation itself, this match is considered as the 1907 final and as a result, the team from Bilbao is considered the runner-up. In 1906, the president of the Recreation Club, Jorge Satrústegui, along with Madrid FC president, Carlos Padrós, and Narciso Masferrer of the

Catalan Football Federation The Catalan Football Federation (, ; FCF) is the Association football, football association responsible for administering football in Catalonia. It was formed on 11 November 1900 as the Football Associació de Catalunya (). It was the first footb ...

, wrote the statutes of the Spanish Football Federation, which shows the importance that the team had in national football. Also in 1906, Recreation Club inaugurates the Ondarreta Stadium, the city's first-ever football stadium.

Legacy

Although the football section of the Real Club de Tenis was short-lived, it played a great role in contemporary football. An internal conflict towards the end of 1907 caused the team to split and several players (such as

Miguel --> Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael. It may refer to: Places * Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands *São Miguel (disamb ...

and Alfonso Sena, Domingo Arrillaga and Bonifacio Echeverría) left to create a new club in 1908, the San Sebastián Football Club, with Federico Ferreirós as its first president. This team, which continued to play in Ondarreta, adopted the classic blue and white colors of the city flag rather than the striking half-yellow and green shirt of the Recreation Club. At the time, the teams who had not been legally registered for more than a year could not play official matches, so to play the 1909 Copa del Rey, they borrowed the license from the

Club Ciclista de San Sebastián Club Ciclista de San Sebastián was a cycling club based in San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain. In 1909 the football section won the Copa del Rey. A few months after this victory, the players who had won the tournament founded the club that wou ...

, under whose name they presented themselves and won the tournament. A few months after this victory, the players who had won the tournament founded the Sociedad de Football (now known as

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, ...

) on 7 September 1909, definitively disassociating themselves from the Cycling Club.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:San Sebastián Recreation Club Defunct football clubs in the Basque Country (autonomous community) Real Sociedad Association football clubs established in 1904 Association football clubs disestablished in 1909 1904 establishments in Spain 1909 disestablishments in Spain Sports clubs and teams in San Sebastián