History of Athletic Bilbao
Meanwhile, sons of the Basque educated classes had made the opposite journey and went to Britain to complete their studies in civil engineering and commerce. While in the United Kingdom, these students developed an interest in football and on their return to Bilbao they began to arrange games with British workers. In 1898, students belonging to the Gymnasium Zamacois founded the "Athletic Club", using the English spelling. In 1901, a meeting was held in the Café García, which established more formal rules and regulations. In 1902, the two Bilbao clubs formed a combined team, known as "Bizcaya", in the first Copa del Rey. They returned with the trophy after defeating Barcelona in the final. This would lead to the eventual merger of the two clubs as "Athletic Club" in 1903. In the same year, Basque students also formed "Athletic Club Madrid"; this club later evolved into Atlético Madrid. The club's foundation date is a subject of debate among football historians. The club itself declares 1898, but others claim 1901 or 1903 as the true founding year.
Basque derby
In the 1911 Copa del Rey, Real Sociedad withdrew in protest after their accusations that other teams, primarily Athletic Bilbao, were using ineligible foreign players, were rejected. Athletic went on to win the trophy without using the disputed players, although they did use some from Atlético Madrid which at that time was a branch of the older Bilbao club. This led to the Royal Spanish Football Federation introducing a rule for the next year's competition that all players must be Spanish citizens. Athletic chose to maintain the approach of using only local Basque players even when the regulations were relaxed some years later, a tradition which has continued into the 21st century. Real had a similar policy from the late 1960s, but it was dropped for foreign imports in 1989 when they signed the Republic of Ireland forward John Aldridge, and for non-Basque Spanish players in 2002 with the transfer of Boris from Real Oviedo.