The history of Basque representative sides falls into the following categories.
1- Selección Norte
Founded in 1913, Selección Norte represented the provinces of Alava, Guipuzcoa, Logroño, Navarra and Vizcaya Santander. Their players were exclusively Basque.
a) Matches against Catalunya (1914-1915).
Some sources claim that a Basque team suffered a a 9-0 defeat at the hands of Catalunya in 1914, but the information is very scant.
Selección Norte beat Catalunya (described in some sources as Barcelona) 6-1 at Bilbao in January 1915. The following month they traveled to Barcelona where the return match was drawn 2-2.
b) Copa del Príncipe de Asturias (1915).
Selección Regional del Norte won the first Copa del Príncipe de Asturias in May 1915. A 3 day triangular tournament between Selección Centro, Selección Catalana, and Selección Norte.
In 1916 they failed to raise a squad to defend the cup.
c) Matches against Catalunya (1916).
They did, however, play a 3 match series against Catalunya. Two games in Barcelona ended 3-1 and 0-0. The return match in Bilbao was won 5-0.
2-Vizcaya
a) Inter regional Championship (1922-24)
In 1922 separate teams were created for Basques and Cantabrians because the latter would not accept the renaming of the Northern Federation as the Biscay Federation.
In May 1922 St Mirren , on tour, played a Select of North Spain in Santander. My theory is that this would have been a team made up of Basques and Cantabrians.
In 1922-23 an 8 team Inter regional Championship was held. The Basque selection played under the name Vizcaya. They drew 1-1 with Asturias in Gijón on 12.11.22. The replay was held the following day and Asturias won 4-3.
In 1923-24 Vizcaya took revenge on Asturias, beating them 4-2 at Bilbao (18.10.23). I can find no record of the next scheduled match (v Catalunya in Barcelona on 27.01.24) but it was Catalunya who advanced to the final.
3- Vasconia
In 1930 and 1931 under the name "Vasconia", which is an alternative name for the Basque country, they played two games against Catalunya, winning again both by 0-1 in Montjuïc and 3-2 in Bilbao .
Euzkadi 1937
4- Euzkadi
During the Spanish Civil War Bilbao was bombarded by German aeroplanes from August 31st 1936. In 1937 the city was besieged by fascist forces.
Taking the name Euzkadi, a squad of prominent Basque footballers toured Europe in order to raise funds for the Republican cause. The tour took in France, Czechoslovakia, The Soviet Union, Norway and Denmark. During this tour Euzkadi played not only leading club sides, but also national representative sides (Czechoslovakia, Georgian SSR, Norway and Denmark).
Whilst the tour was in progress Bilbao fell to the fascists and the players extended their period of exile, travelling to Mexico. These interesting events take us beyond the summer of 1937.
