page_title: El Viejo Clásico
section_title: First league matches, Francoist Spain and beyond
hierarchical_section_title: El Viejo Clásico / History / First league matches, Francoist Spain and beyond
caption_attribution_description: Cristiano
context_page_description: El Viejo Clásico also known as El Otro Clásico is the name given to any football match between Athletic Bilbao and Real Madrid. Until 10 December 2011, this fixture was the most played in the history of Spanish football, when it was surpassed by El Clásico. However, it remains the most played game in the Copa del Rey.
  These two clubs and Barcelona are the only three teams to have participated in all editions of La Liga, the national league championship. Both are owned by their socios who elect a club president to oversee its affairs.
context_section_description: On 21 April 1929, Athletic Bilbao and Real Madrid met for the first time in La Liga; Real Madrid won the match at Chamartín 5–1. The 1929 Copa del Rey semi-final second leg in Bilbao became known as the 'frog match', after a local company distributed toys which made frog-like noises to increase the noise level in the stadium to distract the visitors, who were 3–1 up from the first leg. The ploy failed resoundingly, with Real Madrid recording a 4–1 win to progress 7–2; however they would lose the final. The two clubs would share ten of the first 25 championships (Athletic six, Madrid four) either side of the Spanish Civil War up to 1956, but from that point Los Blancos became the dominant club in the country, winning 16 titles from 26 available (plus six European Cups).
  In that era, the caudillo General Franco used the success of the club (based in the capital city, the seat of power) as a vehicle to promote Francoist Spain to foreigners, whereas Athletic Bilbao – the largest club in the peripheral Basque region whose customs and language were repressed by the central government – won no titles in the same period, only even finishing runners-up once.
  The Basques and other regions regained more self-control in the years following Franco's death in 1975, symbolised by the joint display of the banned Basque flag by the captains of Athletic and local rivals Real Sociedad at a match between them a year later. However, many of the supporters of Athletic and Real Madrid, including their Ultras groups (Herri Norte and Ultras Sur respectively), still adhere to opposing views in terms of their national identity. In this regard, the relationship has similarities with the more famous and intense El Clásico rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona (representing Catalonia).
  On the field, a competitive edge was briefly restored in the early 1980s when Athletic built a strong combative team that won the league twice, finishing ahead of Real Madrid by one point in 1983 with the top spot changing hands on the last day; the season was nothing short of a disaster for the Meringues, who also lost in the finals of the Supercopa, the Copa del Rey (to a last-minute goal), the European Cup Winners' Cup (in extra time), and the Copa de la Liga. In the following campaign, Athletic pipped Madrid by a single goal and better head-to-head record, but their league and cup double that year was the last time they lifted either trophy; Real Madrid soon responded with a run of five-in-a-row, led by their group of homegrown talent, La Quinta del Buitre.
  During a hotly-contested fixture in Bilbao in March 1990, the referee awarded a dubious penalty to the away side and had to halt the game for 12 minutes after objects were thrown at the linesman and Madrid goalkeeper Paco Buyo. The match finished as normal, but as a consequence the San Mamés stadium was closed for one match, with Athletic playing Real Valladolid at the Atotxa Stadium in San Sebastián.
caption: Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo (left) and Athletic Bilbao's Ander Iturraspe during a match at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, 2010
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