The Asturias autonomous football team is the regional football team for

Asturias Asturias (; ; ) officially the Principality of Asturias, is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensive with the provinces of Spain, province of Asturias and contains some of the territory t ...

. They are not affiliated with

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

, because it is represented internationally by the

Spain national football team The Spain national football team () has represented Spain in men's international Association football, football competitions since 1920. It is governed by the Royal Spanish Football Federation, the governing body for football in Spain. Spain i ...

. The team only plays friendlies.

History

Cantabric Federation

The Regional Cantabric Federation of Football Clubs was founded on 9 December 1915 with the aim to represent all the clubs in the Province of Oviedo. On 22 November 1916, the Spanish Football Federation allowed the clubs of

Cantabria Cantabria (, ; ) is an autonomous community and Provinces of Spain, province in northern Spain with Santander, Cantabria, Santander as its capital city. It is called a , a Nationalities and regions of Spain, historic community, in its current ...

to leave the Northern Regional Championship and join the newly created Cantabrian Regional Federation, along with clubs from

Oviedo Oviedo () or Uviéu (Asturian language, Asturian: ) is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain and the administrative and commercial centre of the region. It is also the name of the municipality that contains th ...

, soon to be renamed

. In 1999, the Cantabrians joined forces with the Asturian clubs, and as the 'Cantabric Team', they played four official matches between 1917 and 1918, competing in the defunct Copa Príncipe de Asturias, an inter-regional competition organized by the Spanish Federation. This Cantabric side had the likes of the Villaverde brothers (

Fernando Fernando is a Spanish and Portuguese given name and a surname common in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Switzerland, and former Spanish or Portuguese colonies in Latin America, Africa and Asia (like the Philippines, India, and Sri Lanka). It is e ...

and Senén), Manuel Argüelles and Manuel Meana, with the latter two going on to represent the Asturias national team in the 1920s.

Asturian Federation

On 28 May 1918, the Cantabrian clubs returned to the Northern Federation, so the Spanish Federation agreed to change the name of the Cantabric Federation to '' Regional Asturian Federation of Football Clubs.'' Their first game as the Asturias autonomous football team was a friendly against

St Mirren F.C. St Mirren Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in Paisley, Renfrewshire, that competes in the after winning the 2017–18 Scottish Championship. Founded in 1877, the team has two nicknames: ''The Buddies'' and ''The S ...

which ended in a 3–7 loss, with the Asturian goalscorers being José Luis Zabala, Manuel Argüelles and Domingo. The Regional Asturian team then played seven official games between 1922 and 1926 in the Prince of Asturias Cup, winning the 1922–23 edition, largely thanks to their main player Zabala, who scored twice in their thrilling 4-3

extra-time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

win over

Biscay Biscay ( ; ; ), is a province of the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Autonomous Community, heir of the ancient Lordship of Biscay, lying on the south shore of the Bay of Biscay, eponymous bay. The capital and largest city is Bilb ...

in the quarter-finals, followed by a last-minute winner against

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

in the semi-finals and to seal the title in style, a second-half brace in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

to give his side a 3-1 win over Galicia, with the Asturian equaliser coming from Manuel Meana. The following edition wasn't so successful as they were knocked out by Biscay in the quarter-finals despite yet another Zabala goal. The last edition of the competition was a two-legged final between the winners of the previous two, Asturias and Catalonia, facing each other only for the right to keep the trophy, and Catalonia won both games (2–0 and 4–3), thus deeming Asturias to a silver medal, with the silver lining being a late brace in two minutes from Ramón Herrera. The year before, in 1925, they had faced

in another two-legged affair, at El Sardinero in Santander and at the

El Molinón Estadio El Molinón (), officially Estadio Municipal El Molinón-Enrique Castro "Quini", is an association football stadium in Gijón, Asturias, Spain. The stadium is the home ground of Sporting de Gijón, Real Sporting de Gijón. With a capacity ...

Gijón Gijón () or () is a city and municipality in north-western Spain. It is the largest city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality by population in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Asturias. It is located on the coa ...

, and after a 3–3 draw away, they lost 0–1 at home thanks to an

own goal An own goal occurs in sports when a player performs actions that result in scoring points for the opposition, such as when a Association football, footballer puts a ball into their own net. In some parts of the world, the term has become a met ...

from what had been a Cantabric international in 1918: Manuel Meana. During the 1930s, the Asturian team continued playing several friendly games until the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

Revival in the 2000s

On 23 December 2000, the Royal Asturian Football Federation rescued the Regional team to play a friendly game at Estadio Carlos Tartiere against

Macedonia Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...

. Juanele scored the only goal of the match, with 30,000 people filling the stadium in

. Asturias played two more games, against

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

and

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

Avilés Avilés (Asturian and ;) is a town in Asturias, Spain. Avilés is, along with Oviedo and Gijón, one of the main cities in the Principality of Asturias. The town occupies the flattest land in the municipality, partially in a land that belonged ...

, ending its revival unbeaten. In December 2008, a friendly game against

Sporting de Gijón Real Sporting de Gijón, S.A.D. (), commonly known as Real Sporting, Sporting Gijón, or simply Sporting is a Spanish professional association football, football club from Gijón, Principality of Asturias. Founded on 1 July 1905, it plays in the ...

legends was going to be organized, but in the end, it was canceled.

Competitive record

Results

Cantabric

Notes

Asturias

Statistics since 2000

Selected former coaches

* José Manuel Díaz Novoa (2000–2002) *

Marcelino García Toral Marcelino García Toral (; born 14 August 1965), known simply as Marcelino, is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as an attacking midfielder. He is the current head coach of La Liga club Villarreal. In a ten-year senior car ...

Honours

Prince of Asturias Cup: *Champions (1): 1922–23 *Runners-up (2):

1918 The ceasefire that effectively ended the World War I, First World War took place on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of this year. Also in this year, the Spanish flu pandemic killed 50–100 million people wor ...

and

1926 In Turkey, the year technically contained only 352 days. As Friday, December 18, 1926 ''(Julian Calendar)'' was followed by Saturday, January 1, 1927 '' (Gregorian Calendar)''. 13 days were dropped to make the switch. Turkey thus became the ...

Amateur team (UEFA Regions' Cup)

The Asturias amateur football team is mostly composed by players of the Group 2 of the Tercera Federación. It plays biannually the Spanish stage of the UEFA Regions' Cup, competition that won in 2002, thus qualifying for the 2003 UEFA Regions' Cup, where it reached the final tournament.

Women's team

The women's team made its debut on 19 May 2019 in Santa Cruz de Bezana,

. They were defeated 2–3 by

References

External links

List of matches in Roon Ba
(archived 18 November 2007)

(archived 26 February 2008) {{Non-FIFA teams Autonomous football team

Representative teams of association football leagues Sports organizations established in 1922 1922 establishments in Spain