Athletic Bilbao signing policy

Common card · No. 292047

Since 1911, the Spanish football club Athletic Bilbao has had an unwritten rule whereby the club will only sign players who were born or raised in the Basque Country or who learned their football skills at a Basque club. On occasion, youth players have also been invited to join due to ancestral links to the region, but no senior players have been signed based on Basque heritage alone. The policy is related to Basque nationalism and has been praised as a way to promote local talent, although it has been criticised as being discriminatory. With regards to coaching staff, including managerial positions, those roles are eligible for non-Basques, both from other regions in Spain and elsewhere in the world.

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