For much of their 125-year history, Athletic Bilbao have been recognised for their unique player policy.
Known as a philosophy by those connected to the club, it dictates that Athletic only use players who have been born or brought up in what is defined as the Basque Country, a region of northern Spain and across the border in France of three million inhabitants that shares linguistic, historical and cultural ties.
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It has served them well: behind Real Madrid and Barcelona, they are Spain’s third most successful club in terms of trophies won, and remain the only team other than those two never to have played outside the country’s top flight. They have a history of producing excellent players, including Kepa Arrizabalaga, Aymeric Laporte and Nico Williams, the current star forward at the club.
Towards the end of a lengthy general assembly in October, however, a group of socios (club members) asked whether the interpretation of Athletic’s “philosophy” should be extended to allow the children and grandchildren of Basque people living abroad to play for the club.
“The sons and daughters of Basque people could play in a Basque Country national team: could they not play for Athletic?” asked David Salinas-Armendariz. “Don’t the sons and daughters of Basque people consider themselves to be Basque? We have to open a process so we can know once and for all what Athletic’s philosophy is.”
Athletic’s philosophy is a sensitive issue with a long tradition. It goes to the heart of Basque identity and belonging. The Athletic spoke to several lifelong fans, former players including legends Andoni Zubizarreta and Andoni Goikoetxea, a former board member and a journalist connected to the club in writing this article. None of them wanted to abandon the policy altogether and many wanted it to stay as it is, but others were keen for changes to be made to reflect modern society.
This is where the policy stands, where it came from — and where it could go next.
Athletic (whose official name is Athletic Club) have not always used Basque players only. Founded in 1898 after British workers and young Basques who had studied there brought football to Bilbao, plenty of foreigners played for the club in its early days.
In 1911, Athletic were stripped of a Copa del Rey title after fielding ineligible foreign players (they were later reinstated as champions by the Spanish Football Federation). The legend goes that the club decided to stick two fingers up to their rivals by resolving only to use those who were born locally from then on.
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But historians Jon Rivas and Josu Turuzeta have argued the policy was a result of circumstance. The number of foreigners in Spanish football fell in the 1910s due to stricter Federation rules and British players enlisting in the First World War. Meanwhile, the Biscay region, of which Bilbao is the capital, became a hotbed for the game, making outside signings unnecessary. The Somerset-born striker Andrew Veitch became Athletic’s last foreign, non-Basque player when he appeared in a friendly against London side Civil Service FC in April 1911.
According to Athletic’s website, the philosophy extends to players born or brought up in the Basque Country, which they classify as the regions of Biscay, Gipuzkoa, Alava and Navarre in Spain and Labourd, Soule and Lower Navarre in France. It is not written in the club’s social statutes, although these do state that “Athletic Club will be guided in its development by respect for its traditional sporting philosophy”.
That philosophy has been open to interpretation over the years. It started with players born or raised in Biscay, before Athletic moved to sign established Basque players from clubs outside the region in the 1970s, a policy known as “Operacion Retorno”. At the end of that decade, they started incorporating players who were born outside the Basque Country but had been raised there — including current manager Ernesto Valverde, who was born in the western Spanish province of Caceres, Extremadura, and joined as a player in 1990.
Other arrivals appear to have stretched the guidelines slightly further. Luis de la Fuente, now Spain manager, was born in the northern province of La Rioja that borders the Basque Country and joined the academy aged 15, going on to make 233 first-team appearances. Laporte was also born outside the Basque Country, in south-west France, but agreed to join their youth team at 15 in 2009 and represented the senior side from 2012-2018. In 2019, there was controversy when Athletic’s women’s team signed Bibiane Schulze, a German-born centre-back with Basque heritage whose great-grandfather played for them.
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“From the start until now, (the philosophy) has always been interpreted,” Juan Elejalde, twice an Athletic board member between 1990 and 2001, tells The Athletic. “It was never written down initially because nobody wanted to. All the directors’ boards throughout history have interpreted the philosophy.”
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Athletic are in the mix for La Liga’s European spots this season, but 2024 will mark 40 years since they last won a major title; they won the league and cup double in 1983-84. They have picked up two Supercopas de Espana (Spain’s equivalent of the Community Shield) in the past eight years, but were beaten in back-to-back Copa del Rey finals by Basque rivals Real Sociedad and Barcelona in 2021, held in the same fortnight after the Covid-19 pandemic. The rise of neighbouring clubs Real Sociedad and Osasuna has not helped.
Real Sociedad, who are based in the city of San Sebastian, followed their own Basque-only policy largely as a result of financial limitations for nearly 30 years until they signed Liverpool’s Ireland international striker John Aldridge in 1989. That followed the departure of several key players, although they did not sign a Spaniard from outside the Basque Country again until Real Oviedo’s Sergio Boris in 2002.
“Debates about the philosophy have always existed since I’ve known Athletic,” says Zubizarreta, the former Athletic goalkeeper who helped them to their most recent La Liga titles in 1983 and 1984 and was sporting director from 2001-2005.
“There’s always something there where you say: ‘We’ve been doing this for I don’t know how many years, this has worked for us until now, maybe one day we need to change.’ When we won the league titles, we hadn’t won it in 25 years, so there were followers who thought the moment had come to change. It tends to happen cyclically.”
Athletic supporters are fiercely proud of the policy and many would prefer to be relegated rather than lose it. As one of four Spanish clubs who are still fan-owned — like Barcelona, Real Madrid and Osasuna — those who run for front office know they would not stand a chance if they proposed a change. “There are sweeter ways to commit suicide,” was how former president Jose Julian Lertxundi put it in 2018.
“Nobody touches the philosophy,” says Goikoetxea, a former centre-back who made 369 appearances for Athletic from 1975-1987. “Athletic’s philosophy will last for many, many, many years — let’s say forever. Because if not, we wouldn’t be different. And today, Athletic are a different team.”
Many fans are wedded to the philosophy in its present form. “I’d rather be the ‘almost’ team with the philosophy than champions without the philosophy,” says Alvaro de la Fuente, president of the London-based supporters group Mr Pentland Club. “If I have kids, I’ll try to have them in the Basque Country so they enter (the philosophy),” adds Belen Alonso Dominguez, an Athletic fan from Galicia, northwest Spain.
But some fans think it is time to reconsider it.
The group that, at October’s general assembly, raised the idea of allowing children and grandchildren of Basque people living abroad to play for Athletic, have plans to hold a press conference on the topic in January and say they have received around 250 emails from fans in support.
Athletic members can raise a point of order at the club’s assembly or trigger an extraordinary meeting if they gather the support of a third of all vote-holding members, or 10 per cent of all members.
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Salinas-Armendariz, who supports the group’s plans for a referendum, wants fans to be given four options: get rid of the philosophy altogether, apply the definition given by the club website, include the children of Basque people born elsewhere or turn Lezama, the club’s successful youth centre, into a “global academy” which incorporates young players from across the world.
The 61-year-old is in favour of the third option but wants Athletic to clarify what is meant by “brought up” in the club website’s definition of the philosophy. Another of the three members who raised the issue at the general assembly claimed he had identified 51 examples of Athletic “cheating” their policy.
“The philosophy is not being questioned — we’re in agreement with it. But there is a lack of definition,” Salinas-Armendariz says. “Now is the time to clear it up.”
Those who are in favour of a change point out the Basque Country’s low birth rate compared to the rest of Europe. The Basque Country in Spain had a birth rate of 6.2 (births per 1,000 inhabitants) for 2022 according to the statistics office Eustat, the lowest since 1975, and lower than Spain’s rate of 6.9 and the European Union’s 8.7. But according to journalist Jon Agiriano, the subject of broadening the philosophy is taboo in some circles.
“Ten years ago, before elections for Athletic’s presidency, we did a survey in which we asked the socios various questions,” says Agiriano, who has covered Athletic for local newspaper El Correo for more than 25 years. “One of the questions was the possibility of opening the academy to kids from other places. Sixty-six per cent voted in favour, but nobody paid attention because there is fear. People are scared to consider it.”
Others have long viewed the philosophy differently to the club’s official stance. Aitor Larrazabal is a former Athletic left-back who played 445 matches for them from 1990-2004 and went on to work as head of the academy from 2013-2015. He says he once suggested the signing of Venezuela striker Fernando Aristeguieta, who has Basque roots through his grandparents, but directors told him it did not fit the philosophy.
“We have to be clear on all the nuances,” Larrazabal says. “For me, he (Aristeguieta) could perfectly be included in the philosophy. A player with a Basque parent, wherever he lives, is capable of playing for Athletic. With those roots, they’ll be Basque for all their lives.”
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Javier Iturriaga played for Athletic from 2006-2007 and was born and raised in Mexico City because of his father’s work before he moved back to his family’s native Basque Country at 15. He would like to see Athletic set up academies in countries with large Basque communities such as Mexico, where they can transmit the club’s values to youngsters.
“I like to think about the romance of the values that we Basques have and export across the world — that’s what I most like about the philosophy,” Iturriaga says. “That doesn’t mean there should be someone with a magic wand who says: ‘This person is Basque, this person isn’t.’ That’s more complicated.”
The official response from Athletic to those who raised the issue at the general assembly was clear. President Jon Uriarte told a press conference afterwards that none of the three candidates who had run for the position last year had campaigned to change the philosophy and that fans who wanted to open a debate could do so through the appropriate mechanisms. Voices from within the club do not think the desire for change is widespread within Athletic’s fanbase.
That was a view shared by some fans The Athletic spoke to, although they acknowledged it is a regular topic of debate and conversation. Alvaro de la Fuente thinks putting the philosophy down in writing could harm the team in the long run.
“If situations evolve and you’ve got a lot of kids coming from elsewhere but being taught and starting to play in Lezama when they’re not Basque, we might not accept them,” he says. “That’s when you start causing yourself a bit of pain because you never know how society is going to evolve.”
Athletic are unlikely to win La Liga again anytime soon — only Valencia and Atletico Madrid have managed to break Barcelona and Real Madrid’s stranglehold on the trophy in the 21st century. The redeveloped San Mames stadium is one of the best in Spain and Athletic have just renewed Nico Williams’ contract until 2027. In November, a report published by the CIES Football Observatory found no other team in Europe’s big five leagues had given more minutes to homegrown players this season.
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“The philosophy gives you more,” Zubizarreta says. “When you’re different in a market where everyone does the same, your shirt is surely worth more money, your broadcasts are worth more money, your fans invest more in that merchandise because you’re unique.”
Even so, some fans think Athletic’s philosophy in its present form is limiting. The question is how many are willing to discuss something which is such a significant part of the club’s identity.
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“One could think that if we don’t do anything seriously and just let time pass by, maybe there’s going to be more cases like the Williams brothers (Inaki and Nico, two of Athletic’s best players who were born in northern Spain to Ghanaian parents),” says Gaizka Atxa, a Mexican-born fan and founder of Mr Pentland Club.
“There’s quite a lot of migration, people coming from Africa and South America and other places, but what are the odds that you’re going to get good players like the Williams brothers in five or 10 years’ time? I wouldn’t bet on that strategy.”
(Top photo: Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images)
