Arenas de Getxo · History

Arenas Club is the football club of the Las Arenas neighbourhood in Getxo, in the Basque province of Biscay, and has played in Primera Federación, the Spanish third tier, since 2025. The club gives 1 July 1909 as its founding date, when it was formed as Arenas Foot-ball Club. It won the Copa del Rey in 1919 and was one of the ten teams in the first Spanish league championship in 1929. Its home ground is the Campo Municipal de Gobela, which opened in 2004.

Founding and early years

The first board of directors was registered on 17 May 1910. On 11 April 1912 the club was formally constituted as Arenas Club, with Feliciano Etxebarria as president, and that year it wore red-and-black shirts with white shorts. In 1914 it moved to the Real Club Jolaseta ground in Neguri. It soon became one of the strongest sides in northern Spain, winning the North Regional Championship in 1916-17, 1918-19 and 1921-22 and finishing runner-up in 1919-20 and 1920-21. It went on to win the Biscay Championship in 1924-25 and 1926-27. Those regional titles qualified it for the Copa del Rey, where the Getxo club reached four finals in eleven years.

The 1919 Cup and the finals of the 1920s

The first final came in 1917 against Madrid FC. The match ended 0-0, and Madrid won the replay 2-1 after extra time. Two years later, on 18 May 1919, Arenas were back in a final, this time against FC Barcelona at the Martínez Campos ground in Madrid, in front of about 8,000 spectators. They won 5-2 after extra time: Félix Sesúmaga scored three goals, and Peña and Ibaibarriaga added two more in the closing minutes. It remains the club’s only national title. Arenas lost two more finals: in 1925, on 10 May in Seville, 2-0 to Barcelona, and in 1927, on 15 May, 1-0 to Real Unión of Irún after extra time.

In the same period the club supplied players to the Spain national team. Sesúmaga, Francisco Pagaza and Pedro Vallana were in the squad that won silver at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, and Sesúmaga was Spain’s top scorer at the tournament with four goals.

Seven seasons in La Liga

Arenas were founding members of the league and made their debut on 10 February 1929 with a 3-2 defeat to Athletic de Madrid. They finished fifth in that first season and reached their highest finish, third place, in 1929-30. They were fifth in 1930-31 and 1931-32, seventh in 1932-33 and tenth in 1933-34. In 1934-35 they finished twelfth and went down to the Spanish second division after seven seasons in the top flight.

From the second division to the Tercera

In 1935-36 Arenas came close to returning to the top flight but missed out on promotion on the final matchday against Murcia; in the same season they won the Basque Cup. After the Civil War they played in the second division from 1939-40 to 1943-44, six seasons in all, and in 1944 they dropped to the Tercera División. They came close to returning to the second division in 1956 and 1960. Their next spell in a higher division lasted a single season, 1979-80, in the newly created Segunda División B. In the Tercera they narrowly missed promotion in 2000, 2006, 2013 and 2014.

Gobela and the return to Segunda B

The Campo Municipal de Gobela opened on 5 September 2004. In 2015 Arenas came through the promotion play-offs, knocking out SD Logroñés, and returned to Segunda División B 35 years after their only season at that level. In 2015-16 they finished eighth in Group 2 with 57 points, and they stayed in Segunda B until 2020-21, six seasons in a row. When Spanish football was restructured in 2021, they moved into the new Segunda RFEF, the fourth tier. They finished fifth in 2021-22 and reached the final of the 2022 promotion play-offs, which they lost 2-1 to CF La Nucía.

Promotion to Primera Federación

With Ibai Gómez as coach, Arenas won Group 2 of Segunda Federación in 2024-25. They secured automatic promotion on 4 May 2025 with a 0-0 draw against SD Eibar B at Ipurúa. In their first season in Primera Federación, 2025-26, they finished eleventh in Group 1.