Civil Service FC, Athletic's first English opponents, visit Ibaigane

A couple of weeks ago, on Sunday May 19, Athletic Club hosted a small event at Ibaigane featuring Civil Service FC, an iconic London-based non-league side that became the Lions' first ever English opponents in 1911.

To celebrate the 110th anniversary of their last trip to the Basque Country, Civil Service organised a post-season tour of Bilbao. In addition to the reception at Ibaigane, their men's team played Atlantic Isles - a Sunday league team made up of local residents and foreigners living in Bilbao- at Lezama, their women's team took on Ortuellako Jendea, and the entire travelling party attended Athletic's final home match of the season, a 2-0 win against Sevilla FC.

The act at Athletic's headquarters saw speeches from Civil Service president Jim Kellett, Athletic Club vice-president Jon Ruigomez and  international communications manager, Dan Parry, as well as a gift exchange in which the Basque side presented the Londoners with a photo of players from both teams taken after our 1912 clash at Jolaseta.

About Civil Service

Formed in 1863, Civil Service are one of the oldest entities in the history of the sport and are the only surviving club from the 11 that formed the English Football Association on October 26, 1863. Even though the outfit's roots go further back, they consider that momentous meeting to be their official foundation date.

Furthermore, the London side hold a special place in Athletic Club's history as our first official English opposition. The Zurigorri welcome Civil Service to Biscay four times between 1911 and 1914, the first three fixtures taking place at Jolaseta and the final one at the old San Mames. The programme from the 1911 clash is on display at AC Museum as part of its permanent exhibition.

As part of Los Leones' 2023 Euskal Non-League Day events, Athletic published an article about those matches and our ties with Civil Service in a special series of features on our past matches against English non-league sides.

Civil Service FC are living history of football. What's more, much like Athletic Club and our famous philosophy, Civil Service also still see club football as a representative sport.

Just as Athletic reflects the Basque Country and only fields footballers born or raised in the Basque Country, the English outfit was founded by civil servants and to this day their ranks still contain a large presence of players working in the civil service.