SPANISH CUP

The Spanish Cup, yearly organized by RFEF (Real Federación Española de Fútbol 'Royal Spanish Football Federation'), had its inception in 1902. Among the many celebrations in Spain for the coming of age of King Alphonse XIII and further coronation (he turned 16 on May 17, 1902) there was a football tournament called Coronation Cup, played with a knock-out system. After the enormous success of this new competition, it has been played ever since 1902—with the sole interval of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)—with the same interest and passion.

Throughout its long history, the Spanish Cup has received different names, closely related to the political events in Spain: Cup of His Majesty the King Alphonse XIII from its inception until 1931, when the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed, after the abdication of Alphonse XIII; Cup of the President of the Republic, between 1931 and 1936; Cup of Free Spain, in 1937; Cup of His Excellency the Generalissimo, between 1939 and 1976, during Franco's Regime; Cup of His Majesty the King (or simply King's Cup), from 1976 on, after the re-instauration of monarchy with Juan Carlos I (succeeded in 2014 by his son Felipe VI).

NOTES

• During the Spanish Civil War (between July 17 1936 and April 1 1939) most sport competitions in the country were interrupted (among them the Spanish Cup). However, in the Republican area several tournaments were organized in order to restore an apparent "normality" in the social life of the country. These tournaments were a couple of regional championships, a Mediterranean League, and the Cup of Free Spain (in a similar fashion to the Spanish Cup). The latter, local as it was, was not considered "official" until 2023.

• The main information sources for older editions of the tournament are the archives of the following Spanish newspapers: ABC (1902-), El Mundo Deportivo (1941-), Marca (1942-), As (1967-). From 1985 on, when I started collecting my first statistics on paper, then with an Olivetti typewriter and finally using WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS in an IBM computer (sweet old days...), scores and statistics are registered "on real time."