History of Lamiako: where football began

The history of Athletic Club mentions the Lamiako pitch as the first place where footballs fans would gather in the province. The Lamiako pitch met the regulatory standards and had a good grass surface; it was the first such one in Bizkaia and perhaps in the whole of Spain. After all, a football match had been held at ‘Las Arenas Racecourse’ on 12 January 1891, which a large number of British fans attended. It refers to the leisure and sports complex that was opened in Lamiako in 1887, and which had a racecourse (opened in 1889), several football pitches, clay-pigeon shooting, polo field and a small airfield.

Go to content

A bit of history

  • The beginnings of football in Bizkaia date to around 1889, brought over from Great Britain by workers hired by the Astilleros del Nervión shipyard in Sestao to build steel ships.

    Astilleros del Nervión was founded in 1888 by José María Martínez de las Rivas, owner of one of the most iconic steel companies during the industrialisation of Bizkaia, the San Francisco de la Mudela factory in Sestao. Together with Charles M. Palmer, a naval engineer and owner of Palmer’s Shipbuilding & Steelworks in Jarrow, Newcastle, he formed the Martínez Rivas-Palmer Partnership, the first shipyard in the country with the size and equipment necessary to build large steel ships.

  • The company immediately undertook the construction of the shipyard facilities and began to acquire the necessary equipment and machinery. It also started to hire the necessary personnel, having to resort to skilled workers with experience in steel shipbuilding, mainly from Glasgow and the surrounding area.

    It is estimated that there were between 200 and 500 Scottish workers who held skilled technical positions in various periods. This is where a tradition was born that has continued to this day: FOOTBALL.

  • In 1889, the Scottish employees of the Nervión Shipyards founded “Club Atleta”, a sports and recreation club formed within the company to entertain its expatriate workers who lived considerably isolated away from the “locals”.

    Club Atleta was active between 1889 and 1894, with a focus on sports such as athletics, cricket, cycling, rugby, rowing, tug-of-war and, of course, football, as it had many footballers and former players in its ranks.

    The first reports of football being played within the shipyards date back to 4 April 1890, with a football match between the members of Club Atleta themselves, the Machinery Department (engineers) versus the shipyard workers. The Scottish newspaper the Glasgow Evening Post reported on the news coming out of Sestao.

  • Club Atleta continued with its own events and activities. On 12 January 1891, another football match was held at the Las Arenas Racecourse, which was attended by a large number of British residents. This refers to the sports and leisure complex opened in 1887 in Lamiako, which housed a racecourse, opened in 1889, several football pitches, a pigeon shooting range, a polo field and a small aerodrome.

    Months later, on 1 November 1892, there is evidence of the first match between Club Atleta and Bilbao FC, a club formed by British residents in the region but not linked to the shipyard. The match, held at the Lamiako Racecourse, attracted a large number of spectators, with attendees paying one peseta for reserved seating and two reales for general admission, while admission was free for all ladies.

  • The large number of English people who played football made it necessary to find a permanent venue that could properly host football matches. On 18 November 1892, the secretary of Club Atleta, Enrique Jones Bird, wrote to the Civil Government requesting permission to use the Lamiako Racecourse as a football ground from November to April (at that time, football was only played in winter, while cricket was the sport that dominated the summer).

    The history of Athletic Club mentions the Lamiako ground as the first place where football fans in the province gathered. The Lamiako ground met the corresponding regulations and had good turf, and it was the first of its kind in Bizkaia and perhaps in the entire country.

  • Later, in the spring of 1894, a review was published in “El Noticiero Bilbaíno” stating that 11 Bilbao residents challenged 11 Englishmen to a game of “foot-ball”. Many of them, especially the children of wealthy Bilbao families who studied at English schools, had begun to play this sport of British origin.

    Shortly afterwards, a group of young people from the Zamacois Gymnasium in Bilbao, who were fans of this new sport, began to play regularly in Lamiako, forming the Zamacois Gymnastics Society, following the example of the workers at the Nervión Shipyards, a multi-sport association that approved its regulations on 17 October 1894.

    Everything suggests that it was precisely those who played at Lamiako who, in 1898, formed a group called Athletic Club.

  • The first football match played in the country:

    In its report on the match held on 4 April 1890 between the members of Club Atleta, the Scottish newspaper the Glasgow Evening Post added that “It was the shipyard team that actually played the first game in Spain (about six months ago), and not the Seville team.” They were referring to the match between Sevilla FC and Recreativo de Huelva, played at the Tablada Racecourse in Seville on 8 March 1890, a match that another Scottish newspaper, the Dundee and Angus Courier, described as “the first football match in Spain”.

    However, according to the Glasgow Evening Post, Club Atleta had already played a football match in October or November 1889, shortly after the creation of the Martínez Rivas & Palmer Company.