Editing Recreativo de Huelva (section)

===Foundation and first matches===
After a few years of consolidating these sports practices, Mackay and Adam decided to take a further step, so on 18 December 1889, they were among the seven men who founded ''Huelva Recreation Club'', thus becoming the first-ever football club in Spain, although it was originally founded as a sports club that provided physical recreation for the Rio Tinto [[Miner|mineworkers]] to improve their health.<ref name=Cradle/><ref name=Mackay/><ref name=A100/> The remaining five founding members were [[Edward Palin]], [[Alfred Gough]], [[Gavin Speirs]], and the only two Spaniards: [[Pedro Nolasco de Soto]] and [[José Muñoz Pérez]], both of whom had studied in Britain and thus had a great knowledge of the English language, with Nolasco having previous experience as a director of a sailing club, while Muñoz had a position within the local press.<ref name=Huelva24/> Even though Mackay was the fundamental head behind the club's creation, it was Adam who was elected as the club's first-ever president since he was the eldest of the group and owner of the land where the games were played.<ref name=Mackay/><ref name=A100/><ref name=Huelva24/> This position was then ratified as such at the meeting of 23 December 1889, in which four more members were added for a total of 11; the 27-year-old Speirs, an engineer, was named vice-president, and Palin was named secretary, while Mackay was appointed only as a member of the club's first board of directors.<ref name=Huelva24/>

[[File:La Provincia, Huelva 30 Marzo 1890.jpg|thumb|''La Provincia'' newspaper reporting on the match between Club Recreativo and Sevilla FC on 30 March 1890.]]
After Recreativo de Huelva, [[Sevilla FC]] is the next-oldest club in Spain, having been founded just a month later, on 25 January 1890, by [[Isaias White]] and [[Edward F. Johnston|Edward Farquharson Johnston]], the British vice-consul of [[Seville]], and unlike the Huelva clubs, Sevilla was solely devoted to football, so many considered Spain's first football club.<ref name=Cradle/> Two months later, on 8 March 1890, these two clubs played the [[first official football match in Spain]] at the [[Tablada Aerodrome#Football|Hipódromo de Tablada]], which was refereed by Johnston, the president of Sevilla, who won the match 2–0; Huelva line-up the following players: [[William Alcock (footballer)|William Alcock]], Yates, [[George Wakelin]], [[Guillermo Duclós]], Coto, Kirk, [[Benito Daniel]], Curtis, Gibbon, [[Geraldo Brady]], and Smith.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://palabrasdefutbol.com/2023/05/31/partido-futbol-documentado-mas-antiguo-espana/ |title=Este es el partido de fútbol documentado más antiguo de España |trans-title=This is the oldest documented football match in Spain |language=es |website=palabrasdefutbol.com |date=31 May 2023 |accessdate=16 January 2025 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://onefootball.com/es/noticias/se-cumplen-130-anos-del-primer-partido-de-futbol-en-espana-29404028 |title=Se cumplen 130 años del primer partido de Fútbol en España |trans-title=130 years have passed since the first football match in Spain |language=es |website=onefootball.com |date=8 March 2020 |accessdate=16 January 2025 }}</ref>

Following the success of the first match, the clubs decided to play a return fixture in Huelva just three weeks later, on 7 April 1890, in front of a crowd of 500, and even though Sevilla scored the opening goal via [[Gilbert Pollock]], thus becoming the first-ever player to score an away goal on Spanish soil, Huelva managed to fight back to win 2–1, partly because they had been fortified by "some athletes from the British colony of Rio-Tinto".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sevillafc1890.com/2017/04/surprising-story-of-life-of-spanish.html |title=Surprising Story of the Life of a Spanish Football Pioneer |website=www.sevillafc1890.com |date=10 April 2017 |access-date=16 January 2025 }}</ref>