Athletic Bilbao take on Real Sociedad in derby battle as they target two Copa del Rey final wins in two weeks

A year after it should have taken place, Athletic Bilbao meet their Basque neighbours Real Sociedad in Spain’s 2020 Copa de Rey final on Saturday, April 3, 2021. There should be so much to celebrate and a vast movement of fans from Spain’s north to Andalusia in the south for the Seville final.

Seville is staging a lot of games not involving its two clubs – Real Betis and Sevilla – right now. Spain played Kosovo in Spain's fourth biggest city on Thursday, Chelsea and Porto will play both of their home and away Champions League matches there because of Covid restrictions.

The authorities waited to stage the 2020 final so that fans could attend, but after a year of holding, the game needs to be played before the 2021 final.

Despite being rivals and neighbours, relations between fans are positive and the Ikurrina – the Basque flag which looks like a green, white and red union flag – is everywhere at games between the clubs. There's a higher percentage of females than at other Spanish grounds. There will be fans at Saturday's match between 5th place Real Sociedad and Athletic in 9th.

Athletic famously only field Basque players and have been strong enough historically to be the fourth most successful team with eight championships as they stand alongside Barca and Real Madrid as one of three teams never to have been relegated from the top flight.

They haven't win a major trophy since 1984. They did win Spain's Super Cup in January (played in Seville, of course), coming from behind to beat Barcelona in a stunning game, but competition has got tougher with football's globalisation.

Athletic fans wouldn’t have their policy any other way; they’d rather be relegated than play non-Basque players. Call them provincial or protectionist, but their philosophy is unique and the players are proud to play for their local team in front of their people.

They would be even stronger had top players including Aymeric Laporte, Javi Martinez, Ander Herrera or Kepa Arrizabalaga not been sold for huge fees to Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Manchester United or Chelsea.

Athletic don’t stand in the way of players – so as long as the buy-out clauses are met. They are one of the richest clubs in Spain, play in one of the finest stadiums in Europe (it will stage games in the forthcoming European Championships) and invest heavily in their academy system.

Others choose to stay. Striker Inaki Williams, 26, was born in Bilbao nine months after his parents escaped from war in west Africa after climbing into the Spanish owned African enclave of Melilla.

Williams became the first black player to score for Athletic in 2014. He's on a club record 185 consecutive league games for the club. Athletic have an annual award for other one-club players, with Carles Puyol, Paolo Maldini, Matt Le Tissier and Ryan Giggs among the recipients.

Managers don’t have to be Basque and current manager Marcelino isn’t. He sees Athletic’s Basque only policy as progressive rather than provincial.

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La Liga top scorers 2020/21

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Real Sociedad also had a policy of using locally born players nurtured through the youth system. Indeed, La Real’s policy was even more exclusive since they only took players from the immediate province of Gipuzcoa while Athletic were prepared to twist their own rules by recruiting from the French Basque country, from the neighbouring regions of Navarra, or La Rioja, famous for its wine rather than being Basque.

Sociedad’s strategy had endured for decades and frequently prospered, bringing them the league twice in succession and a European Cup semi-final in the early 1980s.

It was competition for Basque-born players with Athletic which edged Sociedad to change. Athletic are a bigger club. Their average crowd in their new 53,000 seater home was 41,000 in pre-covid times, while La Real’s was 22,000 in their rebuilt 41,000 seater.

They were using their higher status and financial muscle to snare the best Basque quarry, getting players ahead of Sociedad, Alaves, Eibar and Osasuna. The population of the Basque cultural area is just three million, yet teams from there make up a quarter of La Liga.

Sociedad broke with tradition in 1989, Basque nationalism dictating that the outsider could not be a Spaniard but a moustachioed Scouser, John Aldridge, who had never heard of the beautiful beach-flanked city of San Sebastian, let alone understood the intense local politics.

Aldridge worked and many other foreign players have since arrived including Antoine Griezmann, but their side still includes a majority of locally born players. They join with Athletic players to play friendly games for the Basque Country.

Only Barcelona have won more than Athletic’s 23 Copa del Reys, the last in 1984. Real Sociedad won the cup twice, the last time in 1987.

The Eighties were a high point for Basque football, with both giants winning back-to-back league titles.

On the run to Saturday's final, La Real knocked out Real Madrid in the last eight while Athletic eliminated Barcelona, a club who have won six of the last 11 Copa del Reys. Barcelona will meet Athletic Bilbao in the 2021 final, to be played on April 17. Yes, you've guessed it, in Seville.

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Gallery: Sociedad by Real Madrid in Copa del Rey quarter-finals