# 1911 Copa del Rey

The Copa del Rey 1911 was the 10th staging of the Copa del Rey, the Spanish football cup competition. It started on 9 April 1911, and concluded on 15 April 1911, with the final, held at the Josaleta Stadium in Getxo, in which Athletic Bilbao lifted the trophy for the 5th time ever with a 3–1 victory over CD Español.
The 1911 edition was characterized as being one of the most turbulent in the history of the tournament following a complaint for improper alignment against the host team of the tournament, Athletic Club. This complaint was unsuccessful, but ended up causing incidents, angry protests from other teams and the withdrawal of several of them; which prevented a normal development of the tournament. Athletic Club played the tournament with up to five players from Club Atlético de Madrid, which at that time was a branch of the Bilbao team.

## Controversies

To put an end to the schism of the previous edition (which led to the celebration of two championships), the Spanish Federation accepted to hold the tournament in Vizcaya for the first time.
This tournament had 13 teams enter, but three teams withdrew before it started, and another three teams withdrew during the competition, probably a world record in a European national championship. RC Deportivo de la Coruña and Academia de Ingenieros withdrew before the draw to protest fielding foreign players in the tournament.
During the tournament, there were more protests and threats of withdrawal from some teams for this very fact. For instance, after the first round match between Athletic Bilbao and Fortuna Vigo, Real Sociedad protested the match, claiming the illegal selection of two English players in Athletic's side (Sloop and Martin), who had not been residing in Spain for the necessary time (six months) and barely spoke Spanish, and who were even suspected of being hired professionals. The Spanish FA rejected the protest and Real Sociedad immediately withdrew in protest. After the remaining teams, except the military academies, supported Real Sociedad and most of them threatened to also withdraw, Athletic decided not to use these players in their matches, but declined Fortuna Vigo's request to replay their match, which caused a general discomfort in the rest of the contenders and a feeling of comparative grievance that degenerated into more incidents and withdrawals.
In the quarterfinals, Barcelona defeated Sociedad Gimnástica 4–0, but Gimnástica challenged the match due to improper alignment of goalkeeper Luis Reñé, who had played with FC Espanya less than a month ago (thus failing to fulfill the six-month regulation). Faced with this complaint, the Spanish FA ordered a replay of the match, but Barcelona refused to do it citing the case of English players in Athletic Bilbao, so Barcelona was disqualified and Gimnástica qualified for the next round.
Both semifinal matches ended in withdrawals, with Sociedad Gimnástica retiring in the second half (with Athletic Bilbao leading 2–0) in a sign of protest for the referee's permissiveness in the face of the harshness of their rivals (although another version states that they only decided to end the game early to not miss the train they had to take that same day to Madrid). In the second semifinal, both teams withdrew before the game, Academia de Caballería because its players were urgently needed in their regiment while CD Español did it in solidarity with Fortuna de Vigo. The tournament was going to end in a regrettable and chaotic manner, without a final being played, but finally CD Español reconsidered their boycott stance and decided to stay in Getxo and challenge Athletic for the title in the final, losing 3–1.
This dispute was a major factor in Athletic Bilbao's decision to select only local Basque players from then on, a club policy which survived into the 21st century.

## Final

* Copa del Rey 1911 Winners
* Athletic Bilbao 4th Title