Real Betis

Real Betis is a football (soccer) club from Spain.

Talk Real Betis

Are you a fan of Real Betis or want to know more about the club? Then you can discuss Real Betis with other fans on the messageboard here.

Real Betis News

Want to know more about Real Betis? We gather news from various medias about Real Betis and you find them in the news section

Real Betis Balompié S.A.D. is a Spanish football (soccer) club in Seville founded in 1907. The team currently plays in Segunda Division. Its home stadium is the 52,700-seat Estadio Manuel Ruiz de Lopera and its home colours are green and white. Real Betis celebrated their centenary year during the La Liga 2007–08 La Liga season.

Real Betis were relegated in the last round of the La Liga 2008–09 season despite ending with 42 points.

Real Betis were noted as the 37th best followed team in Europe as regard Average attendances of European football clubs during the La Liga 2007–08.

History

Real Betis holds the distinction of being the first Andalusian football team to play in the La Liga and to reach the UEFA Champions League although Seville rivals Sevilla FC already played this competition but with a different format, known as UEFA Champions League, in the 1957-58 season. Betis are also the only Spanish club to have won the La Liga, Segunda División and Tercera División leagues. Supporters of Real Betis are known as béticos. Real Betis came close to folding in the summer of 1992 when they were saved by then vice-chairman Manuel Ruiz de Lopera, who later became chairman and is the current owner of the club.

Early years

Seville was the venue for the first official football game played in Spain. On 8 March 1890 at the Tablada Hippodrome a team from the Seville Water Works defeated the Recreativo de Huelva 2-0. With the exception of two Spanish players on the Huelva team, the players on both teams were United Kingdom. Despite this historic event, it was not until 1905 that Sevilla FC was formed. The name is derived from Baetica, the Roman name for Guadalquivir river. Betis initially attracted support from the working classes although a large number of aristocracts including the King of Spain also supported the team. The foundation date is disputed. The 1907 foundation date comes from Sevilla Balompie, a club founded by students from the Escuela Politécnica on Calle Cervantes. This club merged with Betis FC in late 1914.

Name and colours

Balompie is the literal Spanish word for football as opposed to the anglicized version, futbol. Betis is one of only a handful of Spanish clubs that use this version in their name. As with other Spanish clubs Real was added after receiving patronage from the King of Spain Don Alfonso XIII in 1914. In 1912, Manuel Ramos Asensio, one of Real Betis's founding members, returned from a business trip to Glasgow with a set of green and black striped shirts, donated by Celtic F.C, and proposed Betis take up the colours. The green and black strip was subsequently replaced by a green and white version - the Andalucian national colours. During the Second Spanish Republic Real Betis was once again called Betis Balompie, reverting to its current name after the Spanish Civil War.

Domestic success

Betis have won the La Liga once - in 1935 under the guidance of Patrick O'Connell (1887-1959) - and won their first Copa del Rey in 1977. They made it to the final in 1997 but lost to FC Barcelona. Betis made it to the final again on 11 June 2005 against CA Osasuna at the Vicente Calderón Stadium and won their second Copa del Rey 2-1.

Betis was also once runner-up of the defunct Copa de la Liga (Spanish League Cup) (1985/86)

Centenary celebrations

Betis celebrated their centenary year in 2007, during the La Liga 2006–07 and La Liga 2007–08 league campaigns. In celebration of their centenary year they played A.C. Milan on 9 August 2007. Betis won the game 1-0 when new signing Mark González scored from the penalty spot early into the second half. On 15 August Betis competed in the Estadio Ramón de Carranza Trophy, playing against Real Madrid C.F. in the semi-final, winning the game 1-0 with an injury time free-kick scored by Juan Pablo Caffa. The following day, Betis contested in the final of the Estadio Ramón de Carranza Trophy against Real Zaragoza. The match ended 1-1, with a goal from David Rivas for Betis, before winning the game 4-3 on penalties, with Antonio Doblas decisively saving a Ricardo Oliveira penalty. The summer brought with it a complete change to the Betis squad, with eight arrivals that included Mark González, Ricardo Pereira, and Mariano Pavone, and fourteen sales.

Segunda División

Sadly, after a very tight race to stay in La Liga. Betis efforts failed with a 1–1 draw against Valladolid at the end of the 2008-09 season. With this draw and having finished 18th in the table, Betis will be relegated to Segunda División.

On 15 June over 65,000 Beticos including such icons as Rafael Gordillo, Luis del Sol, Hipolito Rincon, Julio Cardenosa and others joined the protest march in Sevilla with the slogan "15-J Yo Voy Betis "to let the majority owner Manuel Ruiz de Lopera know that it was time to put his 54% share of Real Betis on the market for someone, some entity or the Betis supporters to buy those shares and remove Lopera from the day to day operations of the club." As to date he has not announced the price of each share that he owns although there are 3-4 entities that have expressed in interest in purchasing his shares.

Stadium information

Estadio Manuel Ruiz de Lopera is a football (soccer) stadium in Seville, Spain. The stadium is the home ground of Real Betis. It was previously called Estadio Benito Villamarín before the new owner of the club, Manuel Ruiz de Lopera, decided to build a new stadium over the old one.

See main article: Estadio Manuel Ruiz de Lopera

Club honours

- La Liga:
- - 1 – La Liga 1934–35

- Copa del Rey:
- - 2 – 1977, 2005

- Ramón de Carranza Trophy:
- - 5 – 1964, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2007

Competition participation

Domestic

- La Liga: 46
- Segunda División: 25
- Tercera División: 7

Players

As of June 20, 2009 -

Non-EU players

Notable former players

Club management
Current technical body

Management positions

Notable former managers
see also

Spain
- Luis Aragonés
- Domènec Balmanya
- César Rodríguez Alvarez
- Javier Clemente
- Luis del Sol
- Llorenç Serra Ferrer
- Javier Irureta
- Juan de la Cruz Ramos Cano

Argentina
- Carlos Timoteo Griguol
- Héctor Cúper

Slovakia
- Fernando Daučík

France
- Luis Fernández

Hungary
- Ferenc Szusza

Ireland
- Patrick O'Connell (1887-1959)

Netherlands
- Guus Hiddink

Uruguay
- Enrique Fernández Viola

Notable former players

Presidents

- SEVILLE BALOMPIÉ
- - 1907-1909: Juan del Castillo Ochoa
- - 1909-1910: Alfonso del Castillo Ochoa
- - 1910-1911: José Gutiérrez Fernández
- - 1912: Juan del Castillo Ochoa
- - 1914: Herbert Richard Jones

- BETIS FUTBOL CLUB
- - 1909: Eladio García de la Borbolla
- - 1910-1911: Manuel Gutiérrez Fernández
- - 1913-1914: Miguel Folgado
- - 1914: Pedro Rodríguez de la Borbolla

- REAL BETIS BALOMPIÉ
- - 1914-1915: Herbert Richard Jones
- - 1915-1917: Pedro Rodríguez de la Borbolla
- - 1917-1918: Roberto Vicente de Mata
- - 1918-1919: Eduardo Hernández Nalda
- - 1919-1920: Carlos Alarcón de la Lastra
- - 1920-1921: Jerónimo Pérez de Vargas
- - 1921-1922: Carlos Alarcón de la Lastra
- - 1922-1923: Gil Gómez Bajuelo
- - 1923-1925: Ramón Navarro Cáceres
- - 1925-1926: Antonio Polo Roma
- - 1926-1927: Ramón Cortecero
- - 1927-1928: Antonio de la Guardia
- - 1928-1929: Ignacio Sánchez Mejías

- - 1929-1930: Daniel Mezquita Moreno
- - 1930: Camilo Romero Sánchez
- - 1930-1931: Adolfo Cuellar Rodríguez
- - 1931-1933: Jose Ignacio Mantecón Novasal
- - 1933-1939: Antonio Moreno Sevillano
- - 1940-1942: Ramón Poll Carbonell
- - 1942-1943: Alfonso Alarcón de Lastra
- - 1943-1944: Francisco Cantalapiedra Fernández
- - 1944-1945: Eduardo Benjumena Vázquez
- - 1945-1946: Manuel Romero Puerto
- - 1946-1947: Filomeno de Aspe Martín
- - 1947-1950: Pascual Aparicio García
- - 1950-1952: Francisco de la Cerda Carmona
- - 1952-1955: Manuel Ruiz Rodríguez
- - 1955-1965: Benito Villamarín Prieto
- - 1965-1966: Avelino Villamarín Prieto
- - 1966-1967: Andrés Gaviño
- - 1967-1969: Julio de la Puerta
- - 1969: José León Gómez
- - 1969-1979: José Núñez Naranjo
- - 1979-1983: Juan Manuel Mauduit Caller
- - 1983-1989: Gerardo Martínez Retamero
- - 1989-1992: Hugo Galera Davidson
- - 1992-1996: José León Gómez
- - 1996-2006: Manuel Ruiz de Lopera
- - 2006: José León Gómez

Domestic position
Recent La Liga history
Real Betis currently compete in the top flight of Spanish football, La Liga. Real Betis were relegated during the La Liga 1999–2000 La Liga season and so competed in the Segunda División during the Segunda División 2000-01 season. They were promoted on their first attempt.

Records
- Best La Liga position:
- - First - La Liga 1934-35

- Worst La Liga position:
- - Twentieth - La Liga 1990-91

- Spain national football team internationals:
- - 26

- Greatest home win:
- - Real Betis 7-0 Real Zaragoza - 1958-59

- Greatest away win:
- - Cádiz CF 0-5 Real Betis - La Liga 1977-78

- Greatest home defeat:
- - Real Betis 0-5 Real Madrid C.F. - 1960-61, Real Betis 0-5 CA Osasuna - La Liga 2006-07

- Greatest away defeat:
- - Athletic Bilbao 9-1 Real Betis - La Liga 1932-33

- Greatest recovery for:
- - Real Betis Vs. FC Barcelona - La Liga 2007-08 - from 0-2 to 3-2

- Greatest recovery against:
- - Betis - RCD Espanyol - La Liga 1999-00 - from 2-0 to 2-5

References and footnotes

Related pages

Almería, Athletic Club Bilbao, Atlético Madrid, Deportivo La Coruña, Espanyol, FC Barcelona, Getafe CF, Málaga CF, Mallorca, Numancia, Osasuna, Racing Santander, Real Betis, Real Madrid, Recreativo Huelva, Sevilla FC, Sporting Gijón, Valencia CF, Valladolid, Villarreal CF