The Cantera Policy: What Makes Athletic Club Unique in the World?
Athletic Club, often referred to as Athletic Bilbao, is historically one of the biggest clubs in Spanish football. Together with Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, they are the only clubs that have never been relegated from La Liga since the league’s foundation in 1929, nearly a century ago. In the meantime, Athletic have remained loyal to their unique recruitment policy, preserving their identity in a modern football world where rivals spend hundreds of millions of euros in pursuit of success.
The History of Athletic Club
Athletic Club is a football club from Bilbao, the largest city in the Basque Country, an ancient region located in northern Spain and southwestern France with its own strong identity, language, culture, and traditions. The club was founded in 1898 and played an important role in the creation of Atlético de Madrid in 1903, which originally started as a branch club of Athletic. Athletic has won La Liga eight times and has lifted the Copa del Rey 24 times, four times more than Real Madrid.
Basque only
What truly makes Athletic Club unique in world football is their famous Basque only policy. Known as Lehoiak, the Basque word for The Lions, the club fields only players who are considered Basque. For more than a century, Athletic have competed without a single non Basque player in their squad. During that time, they have never been relegated from Spain’s top division, have won major trophies, and have regularly competed in European competitions. All of this has been achieved while restricting recruitment to a small geographical region.
But what exactly does Basque mean in this context? A player qualifies if he was born or raised in the Basque Country, or if he has spent a significant part of his development at a Basque academy. This interpretation focuses on football education and cultural connection rather than ancestry alone. For example, brothers Iñaki Williams and Nico Williams are eligible because they were born in the Basque Country, despite having Ghanaian roots. On the other hand, players of Basque descent such as Gonzalo Higuaín, Nicolás Otamendi, and Mateo Retegui are not eligible, since they were not born or raised in the Basque Country, despite their Basque ancestry and surnames.
However, there have been a few exceptions and grey areas within the policy. One of the most notable examples is Aymeric Laporte. Laporte was born in Agen, France, and was not born in the Basque Country. He only has Basque heritage through his great grandparents. At the age of 15, he spent one year in the academy of Aviron Bayonnais, a club based in Bayonne, the largest city in the French Basque Country. A year later, at 16, he joined the youth academy of Athletic Club. Many critics argue that this sequence of events effectively created a loophole that allowed Laporte to qualify under the Basque policy. Because he had received part of his football education in the French Basque region, the club considered him eligible. Laporte went on to play five and a half seasons with Lehoiak before transferring to Manchester City for an astronomical fee of 65 million euros.
Local rivals Real Sociedad once followed the same Basque only policy as Athletic Club. However, they abandoned the rule in 1989 when they signed Irish striker John Aldridge, marking the beginning of a new era in which the club recruited both Basque and foreign players. In 2002, Real Sociedad went a step further and fully abandoned the policy by opening the door to Spanish players from outside the Basque Country. One of the key reasons behind this shift was the limited size of the region. Athletic Club were aggressively scouting and developing much of the available local talent, and the Basque Country was simply not large enough to sustainably supply two top level clubs under the same strict recruitment restrictions.
The Last Non-Basque
Before the policy was introduced, Athletic Club had several British players in their squad during the early years of the club. The last of them was the Scottish player Andrew Veitch, who made his final appearance for Athletic in 1911. Official documents also show that Englishman Harry Bagge was registered as a player between 1928 and 1934. However, he never played a single minute for the club, and his exact role during that period remains unclear. Bagge later became manager of Athletic Club. The position of manager falls outside the Basque only policy, and over the years the club has appointed several non Basque and non Spanish coaches.
Criticism
The cantera policy, together with the fitting slogan “Unique in the world,” has made Athletic Club one of the most admired and recognisable clubs in global football. In an era defined by billion euro takeovers, worldwide scouting networks, and transfer fees that continue to break records, Athletic stand as a rare symbol of identity and continuity. Their commitment to developing local talent through their academy system has earned them respect far beyond the Basque Country. Yet this uniqueness also brings controversy.
Criticism comes from several directions. Some of it comes from within. Certain supporters believe the policy is too strict and limits the club’s competitive potential in modern football. Others question individual signings, debating whether certain players are truly Basque enough to represent the badge. There is also criticism from rival regional clubs, who argue that Athletic’s dominance in scouting allows them to attract the best young talent in the Basque region, effectively draining smaller teams of their most promising players.
Finally, there is broader public criticism. Some observers view the policy as discriminatory, exclusionary, or even xenophobic. In a sport that increasingly promotes diversity and global inclusion, Athletic’s approach can appear to contradict modern values. However, defenders of the policy argue that it is not based on race or ethnicity, but on cultural and developmental connection to the Basque region. They see it not as exclusion, but as a commitment to local identity in a globalised sport.
And perhaps that tension is exactly what keeps Athletic Club so fascinating. In a football world driven by money and global markets, they continue to represent something different: a club built on geography, community, and belonging.
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