Recreativo de Huelva
Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox football club Real Club Recreativo de Huelva, S.A.D. (Template:IPA) is a Spanish football club based in Huelva, Andalucia, Spain. Founded on 23 December 1889, they are the oldest football club in Spain, and currently play in Template:Spanish football updater, holding home games at Estadio Nuevo Colombino, which has a 21,670 seating-capacity.
Team colours are white shirts with blue vertical stripes and white shorts.
History
[edit]Background
[edit]Huelva was introduced to football by the British employees of the Rio Tinto Company Limited (RTCL), who began to arrive in 1873 to work at the copper mines of Rio Tinto.<ref name=Cradle>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=Group>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=Vigo>Template:Cite web</ref> Huelva thus became the home to a vast British colony, among whom a certain William Bice stood out, as he was the one who began organizing the first "kick-abouts" between the club's members, which were possibly the very first kick to a football ball on Spanish soil.<ref name=Group/><ref name=Vigo/>Template:Efn This colony eventually gave birth to a club in 1878, the Rio Tinto English Club (known in Huelva as Club Inglés Bella Vista), where the mine workers played their favorite sports, such as cricket, rugby, and football.<ref name=Cradle/><ref name=Group/> The first president of this club was the Scot John Sutherland Mackay, the newly-arrived company doctor.<ref name=Group/> There are reports of football games between Rio Tinto and Huelva as early as 1882, but these teams were never officially established, so there is no legal record of their existence.<ref name=Group/>
Rio Tinto FC was the catalyst of the Sociedad de Juego de Pelota (Template:Langx), which was founded in 1884 by Dr. William Alexander Mackay, the brother of John Sutherland, who was a lover of sports and thus wanted to use physical exercise to improve the health of his patients.<ref name=Mackay>Template:Cite web</ref> He began organizing football and cricket games, usually between his compatriots living in Riotinto and those crews of the British ships, which were held in a large area of marshes filled with flooded soil opposite the Gas Factory run by fellow Scotsman Charles Wilson Adam,<ref name=Cradle/><ref name=Mackay/><ref name=A100>Template:Cite web</ref> who also played in some cricket matches himself.<ref name=Huelva24>Template:Cite web</ref>
The earliest known example of this dates dating to March 1888, when the club played football and cricket matches against the sailors of a merchant ship called Jane Cory who had just arrived in port; Mackay even invited a Spaniard Ildefonso Martínez to play.<ref name=Mackay/><ref name=ESPN>Template:Cite web</ref> Eventually, in the late 1880s, the local population began gathering there to watch this curious sport, which soon gained followers among the local youth, and as they became familiar with its rules, some of them asked Mackay to participate, which he happily accepted, as he did not conceive of his recreational club as something exclusive to the British colony.<ref name=Mackay/> Ildefonso Martínez, José García Almansa, Alfonso Le Bourg, and some others, thus became the first Spaniards to play football.<ref name=Mackay/>
Foundation and first matches
[edit]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 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/>
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 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 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, Yates, George Wakelin, Guillermo Duclós, Coto, Kirk, Benito Daniel, Curtis, Gibbon, Geraldo Brady, and Smith.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</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>Template:Cite web</ref>
1890s
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The Recreation Club demonstrated an organizational capacity that was out of the ordinary for a sports club of that time, playing many more matches against Sevilla and the Club de Río Tinto in the early 1890s, fielding the likes of Wakelin, Alcock, James Reeves, and captain Almansa, who scored a late winner against Sevilla in February 1892.<ref name=Elsport>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1892, Mackay created the club's first crest, the blue and white heart, because those were the colors of the Mackay clan crest, the flags of Scotland and Huelva, and even Lybster FC, his hometown club.<ref name=Mackay/>
In that same year, Mackay and Adam formed the club's subcommittee charged with planning and supervising the works of the so-called Campo del Velódromo on the plot of land located on the Seville road opposite the Hotel Colon, which was the first sports venue built in Spain for the practice of football,<ref name=Mackay/><ref name=Huelva24/> and which was inaugurated on 20 August, just in time to host the sporting events that had been organized by Recreativo in commemoration of the IV Centenary of the Discovery of America.<ref name=Huelva24/> After the departure of Edward Palin in 1891, Muñoz became the new secretary of the club, and as such, he played a key role in the organization of this event that took place between August and October 1892,<ref name=Huelva24/> and whose program remains the oldest surviving original document from Recreativo, in which the club has specific and established rules for football, cricket, and tennis games, hence making them the oldest rules that had been created in Spain in relation to the practice of football.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Charles Adam held the club's presidency from its foundation on 18 December 1889 until his resignation on 29 November 1896, being replaced by Mackay, who, in turn, held this position for nearly three decades until 1924, except for a brief period in 1903.<ref name=Mackay/><ref name=A100/> In March 1915 it was William Alexander Mackay himself who hand-delivered to the Minister of the Interior the letter requesting the King Alfonso VIII to accept the Honorary Presidency of the Club, and since then Recreativo has been Royal.<ref name=Mackay/><ref name=corona>Template:Cite web</ref>
First cups
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In 1891, most of the founders and promoters of Recreativo, including Adam, founded an organization called "Seamen's Institute", which was meant to provide shelter, entertainment, and company to the English sailors who anchored their ships at the port of Huelva for relatively long periods while they waited for the mineral and finished loading it onto the ships.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1903, after many years as secretary, Muñoz became the vice-president of Recreativo, and later that year, his proposal to create an annual football tournament between Recreativo and the British sailors of the Seamen's Institute was approved at the board meeting held on 9 December 1903.<ref name=Huelva24/><ref name=Cup>Template:Cite web</ref> Muñoz decided to follow the footsteps of the Copa del Rey, which had been inaugurated earlier that year with a cup donated by Alfonso XIII, and also ordered a cup made of silver in London, with the first match taking place on 2 January 1904, and being won by the British.<ref name=Cup/> This was followed by another match on 30 April, which was postponed to 6 November to coincide with the inauguration of the new facilities at the Velodrome, but the British won again 4–2.<ref name=Cihefe>Template:Cite web</ref> It was only two weeks later, on 20 November, that Recreativo finally won this cup, and despite some indications that the club had lifted the Copa de la Raza in 1893 and the Copa Heráldica in 1898, it can be reliably and based on strict documentary evidence that the Copa Seamen's Institute was the first time that a captain of Recreativo lifted a trophy; it was William Alcock, near the Anglican Chapel of the "Seamen's Institute".<ref name=Cihefe/>
After declining invitations in previous years due to financial problems, Recreativo decided to participate in the 1906 edition of the Copa del Rey, playing two matches at the Hipódromo de la Castellana against Athletic Club and Madrid FC (currently known as Athletic Bilbao and Madrid FC), both ending in losses.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Huelva squad that played in this tournament included the likes of Antonio Tellechea, Tomás Estrada, Robert Geoghegham, and William Waterston.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
On 1 January 1911, Recreativo achieved its third consecutive victory over the Seamen's (12–0), and in doing so, the Copa Muñoz became the definitive property of Huelva, and it still is the oldest trophy kept by Recreativo in its museum.<ref name=Cup/><ref name=Cihefe/> Muñoz held the club's vice-presidency for three years, until 1906, when he was replaced by the Spaniard Manuel Pérez de Guzmán, whose six sons all played for the club between 1903 and 1920.<ref name=Photo>Template:Cite web</ref> In the first half of the 1910s, two of the Pérez de Guzmán brothers (Manuel and José), along with Tomás Estrada, played a crucial role in helping the team win three non-official Andalusian regional championships, which Recreativo itself organized, and the Copa Centenario de las Cortes de Cádiz in 1912, beating Español de Cádiz 3–0 in the final.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> During this period, Estrada was everything at Recreativo: player, captain, referee, and manager, and also correspondent in Huelva for the weekly Madrid Sport.<ref name=Loans>Template:Cite web</ref>
Huelva also became the first Spanish side to defeat a Portuguese team, winning against Sporting Clube de Portugal. In 1940, it first reached Segunda División, only lasting however one year and not returning until 1957. Since 1965, the team also began hosting the Trofeo Colombino.
Later years
[edit]In 1977–78, led by, amongst others, former Real Madrid youth graduate Hipólito Rincón, Recreativo first gained promotion to the top flight. After just one season, it returned to level two, staying there until 1990, the year of a Segunda División B relegation.
In 1999–2000, Recreativo were due to be relegated to the third division, but were redeemed when Atlético Madrid descended into the second and thus their reserves were ejected.<ref name=marca>Template:Cite news</ref> With a new stadium and the appointment of Luis Alcaraz as manager, and the club returned to the top flight for the first time in 23 years on 19 May 2002 with a 2–1 home win over fellow Andalusians Xerez CD.<ref name=guardian>Template:Cite news</ref> After this one season at the top, the team was immediately relegated back. However, in the same campaign, it reached the final of the Copa del Rey for the first time, being defeated by Mallorca 0–3 in Elche.<ref name=guardian/>
In 2005–06, after beating Numancia on 4 June 2006, Marcelino García Toral's Recreativo mathematically secured promotion with two matches left to be played. Ahead of the new season, the club bought players including France youth international striker Florent Sinama Pongolle from Liverpool,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and young winger Santi Cazorla from Villarreal CF, with a budget of only €15 million.<ref name=lowe>Template:Cite news</ref> The club finished eighth in the table, at 54 points, a best-ever, and made headlines with a 3–0 win against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.<ref name=lowe/> The club's leading goalscorer was Sinama Pongolle with 12 goals to his name, while García Toral left at its conclusion for Racing de Santander.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Recre narrowly avoided relegation the following season, and in 2008–09, one win in its last 15 matches led to it coming in last place and returning to Segunda after three years. Overspending in aim of returning to the top flight led to debts.<ref name=guardian/> At the end of the 2014–15 season, the team fell into Segunda B for the first time in 18 years.<ref name=marca/> A year later, the club was nearing extinction due to financial problems.<ref name=bbc>Template:Cite news</ref> In May 2021, due to restructuring of the Spanish football league system, the club was relegated two tiers to the fifth level for the first time in its history.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Journalist Damián Ortiz of the Diario de Huelva called the entire squad "bastards without honour" and "a black mark on the history of Recreativo de Huelva".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In April 2022, Recre achieved promoted back to fourth division. In June 2023, Recre achieved second consecutive promoted to third division after beating Cacereño in last playoff.
Season-by-season record
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- 5 seasons in La Liga
- 38 seasons in Segunda División
- 2 seasons in Primera Federación
- 14 seasons in Segunda División B
- 1 season in Segunda Federación
- 23 seasons in Tercera División
- 1 season in Tercera División RFEF
- 2 seasons in Divisiones Regionales
Current squad
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Youth players in use 2024/25
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Out on loan
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Youth players
[edit]Coaches
[edit]Presidents
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Honours
[edit]- Copa del Rey (Spanish Cup): Runners-up: 2003, Semi-finals: 1906, 1918
- Campeonato Regional Sur (Andalusia Championship): 1918
- Segunda División: 2005–06
International players
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Notes
[edit]References
[edit]External links
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