February 10 – Viva Espana!
TODAY in 1929 one of Europe’s biggest domestic leagues was kicking off for the first time. England had been first to get their championship underway in 1888 but it took the other major countries in Europe some time to catch on the idea.
Today it was the turn of Spain to join the party when they played the opening matches in the first ever season of La Liga.
The man behind the plan was Jose Maria Acha, a director at Arenas Club de Getxo (these days somewhat less exalted than they were and now propping up the fourth tier of Spanish football) and in 1927 he suggested the biggest clubs should get together and form a national league for Spain.
The immediate problem was deciding who was to be at the top table but eventually, after a lot of debate, the Spanish football federation named ten teams that would contest the inaugural Primera División. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, Real Sociedad, Arenas Club de Getxo and Real Unión were all selected as previous winners of the Copa del Rey, while Athletic Madrid, RCD Español and CE Europa qualified as Copa del Rey runners-up and Racing Santander qualified through a knockout competition.
Real Madrid set an early tone for how they would come to dominate Spanish football by smashing five past CD Europa in a crushing 5-0 win. In their second match a week later Real beat Barcelona 2-1 away from home, but it was the Catalans who had the last laugh that year when they win the first ever Primera División title, finishing two points ahead of rivals Real Madrid.
Of the ten teams that competed that first season, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao have never been relegated from the top flight while Arenas de Guecho, Real Unión and CE Europa now ply their trade in the lower leagues.
Since those heady early days La Liga has run every year, save for a three year break between 1936/39 when the civil war was raging, and been won a massive 31 times by Real Madrid with Barca lagging behind on a comparatively puny 18.
It has also been host to some of the best players the world has ever seen from Ferenc Puskas and Alfredo di Stefano to Johan Cruyff, Maradona, Ronaldinho and now Leo Messi.
Have a look here to see what else happened on this day, and we’ll leave you with some footage of probably La Liga’s finest ever player. More from us tomorrow but for now have a look at the skills Alfredo di Stefano used to pay the bills.
No related posts.
Loading ...
