page_title: Basque Country national football team
section_title: The first Basque team (1930)
hierarchical_section_title: Basque Country national football team / History / The first Basque team (1930)
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: L'Athletic Bilbao, en avril 1937 (déplacement ici à Paris, et champion d'Espagne un an auparavant).
context_page_description: The Basque Country representative football team represents the Basque Country in football. It selects players from the Basque Country autonomous community, Navarre and the French Basque Country and is organised by the Basque Football Federation. It is not affiliated with FIFA or UEFA and therefore only allowed to play friendly matches against FIFA or non-FIFA affiliated teams.
  The team has been referred to by various names including Euskadiko selekzioa, Euskal Herriko futbol selekzioa, Selección de Euskadi, Vasconia, Equipo Vasco, Euskadi XI and Basque XI. Most of their home matches have been played in the San Mamés Stadium which was replaced in 2013 by the new San Mamés.
  The Basque Country has had a football team of its own since 1930. During the Second Spanish Republic, they played firstly under the name of Baskoniako selekzioa and then from 1936 as Euzkadiko selekzioa. During Franco's 36-year dictatorship it only played two games. After Franco's death in 1975, the team was reformed using the name Euskadiko selekzioa and from the early 1990s began playing regular friendly matches, usually during La Liga's Christmas break.
context_section_description: It wasn't until 1930 that the Biscayan and Gipuzkoan federations finally came together to create the first permanent team with the name 'Vasconia' ('Baskoniako selekzioa') to represent the Basque Country. Their first game was against Catalonia on 8 June 1930, which they won by 0–1 in Montjuïc, and they played Catalonia again on 1 January 1931 in Bilbao, winning that match 3–2.
  During the first year of the Spanish Civil War the Basque team changed its name to Euzkadiko selekzioa. Their first match with that name was against Cantabria on 29 November 1936 in Santander, when the Cantabrians won 3–2.
  In 1937 the first president of the Basque autonomous region José Antonio Aguirre, who in his youth had been a player for Athletic Bilbao, decided to send a Basque football team abroad with the dual aim of raising money to fund the cost of the civil war, and also as a form of propaganda letting the world know about the conflict in Spain. At the same time a choir called Eresoinka was formed to tour Europe for the same purpose. Money raised was reportedly used to fund a hospital in La Rosarie, France, used by Spanish refugees, and also to help support the thousands of Basque children who had been sent abroad for safety.
  The team consisted of the following players:
  Goalkeepers: Gregorio Blasco (Athletic) and Rafael Eguzkiza (Arenas);
  Defenders: Serafín Aedo (Betis), Pedro Areso (Barcelona) and Pablito Barcos (Barakaldo);
  Midfield: Leonardo Cilaurren (Athletic), Jose Muguerza (Athletic), Pedro Regueiro (Madrid), Roberto Etxebarria Arruti (Athletic), Ángel Zubieta (Athletic), Tomas Agirre (Nîmes) and Enrique Larrinaga (Racing);
  Forwards: Jose Iraragorri (Athletic), Emilio Alonso (Madrid), Isidro Langara (Oviedo), Luis Regueiro (Madrid), Ignacio Agirrezabala (Chirri II) (no team), José Manuel Urquiola (Athletic Madrid), Guillermo Gorostiza (Athletic);
  Coach: Pedro Vallana
  Also attached to the team were Perico Birichinaga, as a masseur, and Ricardo Irezábal and Manu de la Sota, both as delegates.
  The team made its debut on Monday 26 April 1937 in Paris's Parc des Princes against the French champions, Racing Paris, winning 0–3. This happened to be the same day that Guernica was bombed by Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe. In May 1937 they toured France beating Olympique Marseille 2–5, losing 3–1 to Sète, and playing Racing Paris twice more, 3–3 and 2–3.
  In May 1937, the team began to have problems with FIFA. Due to the civil war in Spain FIFA had banned all FIFA-affiliated countries and clubs from playing any Spanish teams. A match due to take place on 30 May in the Netherlands against Rotterdam was cancelled by the Dutch Federation. But many clubs and national sides continued to play the Basque team because they sympathised with Republican Spain which the team symbolised. The team's first match against a nation from outside of Spain was a 3–2 defeat, also in May 1937, to Czechoslovakia, who had been runners up in the 1934 World Cup. In June, they played Czechoslovakia again losing 2–1. Then they played Silesia in Chorzów on 9 June.
  When Bilbao was captured by Franco's forces on 19 June 1937 the Basque team were in Moscow, having been invited by the Soviet Union's Politburo due to political motivations. They then toured the country during that summer, playing against Lokomotiv Moscow (1–5), Dynamo Moscow twice (1–2) and (4–7), Dinamo Leningrad (2–2), Spartak Moscow (6–2), Dynamo Kiev (1–3), Dinamo Tbilisi (0–2), the Georgian football team (1–3), and finally Dinamo Minsk (1–6). Their only loss was against Spartak Moscow. The Soviet authorities were determined to win the final game in Moscow, so the Spartak team was improved by bringing players from other parts of the country to play for the team just for that match. Lastly they travelled to Norway and Denmark in August where they beat an Østfold select (1–3), Norwegian AIF (2–3), and completed their biggest win to date against Denmark's DAI (1–11).
  In the autumn of 1937 the team crossed the Atlantic to play in Mexico where FIFA had given them permission to play clubs and the national side. FC Barce
caption: The Basque team in France at the beginning of their European tour, April 1937
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