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Old 11-11-2006, 09:13 AM   #7797
ukhotstove
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Location: North of England Gods Country
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Quote:
Originally Posted by zoraster View Post
Regarding the two other players you quote, they both fit within the confines of Basque as FIFA would define it if the club was indeed the Basque national team. Iturriaga’s entire family are Basque and he was only born in Mexico as his father was working overseas. The keeper had no connection, but grew up in the Basque territory thus qualifying on residency grounds.

Pretty much what I stated in the quote, but people stating that they are racist is far from the truth as they were founded by British miners and shipyard workers who merged with a group of Basque students, who had actually been studying in England and had developed an interest there/here.

They have also always kept the spelling of Athletic rather than Athletico apart from when Franco ordered them to change it in the early 1940's.
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