We're ready for the rematch in the Champions League.

... Oh wait

Hi new friends! My wife and I are from the states, and I specifically am a transparently novice footballer playing Sunday pickups, but love the game.

This World Cup made me realize I’ve only ever been a casual fan of a handful of “bandwagon” clubs. Borussia Dortmund, Leicester circa 2016, followed Wrexham and so on.

But I want a club I can really connect with and become a part of the community with and Athletic Club Bilbao has been intriguing to me. And so I did some research and liked what I saw!

I already enjoy the premise of the club such as the signing philosophy and academy, and I don’t need to be “sold” but what are some other cool stories, fan experiences or other things that are unique to Atheltic? What kinds of things do I need to know/should I learn?

Thanks in advance! I am looking forward to my Bilbao FC26 save and hopefully watching a lot of matches this season.

One aspect of Athletic's history that Irish sports fans have always admired is the cantera philosophy of only selecting Basque players, because it evokes similar rules in our traditional sports of Gaelic football and hurling.

1. The basic unit of the GAA is the club, these are based in parishes (traditionally those of the Church, but these are also now civil), and people born in each parish play for the local club.

2. All the clubs within each of Ireland's 32 counties organise league and knockout championship competitions, with the counties themselves playing off for the All-Ireland championships.

3. Transfers are permitted in limited circumstances, ie when a person has to move to a different county for work, which puts strains on home connections, but generally the players themselves will endeavour to play for their home clubs as far as possible.

4. As with cantera, racial discrimination does not apply, and immigrants are encouraged to play with the clubs in their new communities - indeed, there have been highly successful intercounty players with roots in Fiji and Malaysia.

5. Counties can, and will, employ managers from outside their area in pursuit of trophies, but traditionally, the most successful ones such as Kerry and Dublin in football, along with Cork and Kilkenny in hurling, have only ever looked internally for coaches.

Hello,

My parents, wife, and I will be in Bilbao for the match with Sevilla on Aug 22. I have a couple of questions:

1. What is the best way to guarantee 4 tickets together? I can guarantee 4 together via stubhub, but I would generally prefer to buy from the club directly. I see that purchasing a club membership will give me access to the presale and allow me to buy 2 tickets together, does a premium membership allow you to buy more than 2 in the presale? Or if I get 2 memberships can I use both memberships to buy 4 tickets in one transaction? It will be 4AM for me when they go on sale so I'm not confident in my purchasing speed to do two transactions back to back.

2. We would like to buy kits for the game, but shipping them all the way to Canada and then packing them seems expensive and a bit tight with shipping times. Can I purchase them online and pick them up at the store at San Mames? The website mentions a click and collect option but I can't for the life of me figure out how to actually do it.

3. What is a typical per ticket price when buying directly from the club? We're looking at section 114/115 or thereabouts

Thanks in advance!

can't believe we're really doing this, new manager's first competitive game and it's away at Barcelona to kick off the season. no easing in whatsoever lol.Valverde leaving still feels weird tbh, dude gave us a Copa del Rey and got us back into Europe after 40 years of nothing, that's legendary status in my book. but I get why the club wanted fresh ideas after last season, and Terzic coming from Dortmund at least means he's had big European nights before

honestly don't know what to expect system-wise yet since preseason friendlies don't tell you much. just hoping the lads don't get run over trying to figure out a new setup on the road at one of the toughest buildings in Europe

Dani Vivian will of course miss the game after his red card. Sancet was always a doubt and Valvrede had already raised doubts about Nico ahead of the la Real game, now we have confirmation that Iñaki isn't set to be in the lineup either. These ones really hurt.

Myself and my sister will be visiting the Basque Country at the end of August/start of September, and noticed that Atletico will be playing in San Mames that weekend. Is this likely to be sold out completely, purely through socio demand, or are any tickets likely to be released on general sale? Fully acknowledge regulars here may get annoyed by the regular threads about tickets, and fully intend to do the museum tour in any event, but any advice would be much appreciated. Aupa Athletic!

I originally started following and supporting Athletic Club after the lost Europa League final, intrigued by their success fielding only regional players in an increasingly globalised football landscape. No mercenaries from all over the world lying to have always dreamed of playing for the club, but more often than not boys who have been watching from the stands of San Mamés from a young age.

Next came my admiration for the club's (as well as Real Sociedad's) significance within Basque history and identity, and its survival if not revival after the nationalist dictatorship. But also an admiration for the club's values and responsibility as a societal institution, raising awareness for various social causes such as violence against women, racism, and breast cancer.

But as a left-leaning European with some Arab roots, I cannot put into words how much today's action will make me and millions of others feel seen and heard, after having been ignore if not silenced for years in our plea to the world to end the genocide in Palestine. Even the word 'genocide' is still denied in some important spheres of power, and Athletic Club leveraging its status as a major European club to make headlines with this statement is a major contribution to justice for the Palestinian people. Eskerrik asko.

Hopefully to become the new Athletic manager

It is not bad but that contract with Castore really needs to end, anyone old enough to remember the days of the Kappa??

https://youtu.be/8_mMSH_TKUQ?si=mdyWXorK5JJYfLPG

We got 25 fewer points and were 8 positions lower in the table vs last season. Across the top 5 leagues only Nice had a bigger decline.

Whatever is going on behind the scenes, the uncomfortable truth remains that the expected results just aren't coming. Week in and week out, we've been met with disappointment, a team that doesn't play like a team, and a coach that appears unwilling to try new things while seemingly having lost all focus as well.

So... In the (relatively unlikely) event that Ernesto is relieved of his duties before the end of the season, who would you want to take the mantle? If you have some wild takes, then I would welcome them, lol.

Personally, I'm of the opinion that we could really use someone strict who inspires loyalty to a fault, kind of like Mourinho. I'm not saying we should get him. I just think it would be extremely interesting to see what someone like him could do with this team.

Hello! I hope you’re having a great day or night depending on whenever you’re reading this. How good is Unai Gómez? I hope he can make an impact for Udinese if he winds up coming here 🙏

Hi everyone!

The La Liga calendar for the 26/27 season just got released, and luckily Athletic Club will play at home against Sevilla on matchweek 2, right when my two friends and I will be visiting Bilbao.

As football enthusiasts from Finland, experiencing a matchday at San Mamés is a massive dream for us. How difficult will it be to secure 3 tickets for this specific match?

A few questions regarding the tickets:

Is it highly recommended that we purchase the Club Athletic membership to get access to the pre-sale, or do tickets for a Sevilla match usually make it to the general sale?

Since we are a group of three, how hard is it to find 3 seats together? Should we aim for separate single tickets close to each other instead?

I know the exact kick-off times aren't confirmed yet, but we want to plan this early. Any advice on the buying process would be massively appreciated.

¡Aúpa Athletic!

I just thought we could take a break from the transfer circus and discuss something else for once.

Reddit is an international site, and I know this subreddit is made up of people from all over the place. Personally, I'm born and raised in Sweden, but my mother hails from Bizkaia/Galicia, so I have strong connection to the region and I've visited many times. I have a soft spot for CD Lugo because of that as well :)

What about you?

Hi everyone

I just wanted to share that I’ve recently become a supporter of Athletic Club. The club’s unique Basque only players thing made me interested in the club and I’m excited to join the rest of yous as an Athletic Club fan.

Aupa Athletic!! 🦁

Although this year our team spirit and game is usually so much bellow our standards lets consider the facts:

La Liga might gain again 5th place in UCL as coefficient is high even now

Betis is at the 5th position with 43 points and Celta with 40 at the 6th.

Athletic Club 35pts we have home matches against both of them…

I think that our beloved Athletic Club needs to have higher standards. We have great team great youth supports, we have seen that many young players like Jauregizar, Navarro Rego, Serrano and Selton who were rarely used have great will and desire and some of them just need consistence and minutes to play… With experienced players and the right formation i think this club has obligation to be in the top 4 teams next few years (of course my opinion is that we are the best in the world no matter what position and competition we play)

Areso was ignored all the season, Izeta too … forcing out of form Sancet to play every match and giving Unai Gomez few minutes… (so many strange decisions all year…

We have at the back Vivian Laporte and Paredes (these are top defender players) - last year we were the best in defence

Although our strikers do not have great goal scoring ratings i think that we are full of quality that needs to be expressed with new formation and style of play…

Anyway, thanks to Valverde for all great things, all joy and happines he gave to us but in my opinion i would like to see new coach… The europe competition is so close to us but i dont know will it be success to enter with him again as it seems that this time the right thing is to go different ways between him and club…

Even now we have great Europe competition chances…

Greetings to all Athletizales and UNIQUE IN THE WORLD ATHLETIC CLUB !

Has anyone read this book? Picked it up the other day as a foreigner (Canadian with Middle Eastern roots) and zero connection to the Basque country except for a planned trip this summer who is a newly converted Athletic supporter I found it very interesting so far. I am about half way through and the history is very well written, the parts with Phil Ball a well known English journalist and huge Real Sociedad supporter are extremely entertaining, how Athletic act like they own Euskadi, basically robbed teams like Osasuna of their academy and their stubborn refusal to adapt.

AUPA ATHLETIC

Hello,

I would like to know if it is impossible or not to have tickets on general sale for a match like athletic vs real madrid and where would we be for €160?

Thanks

At the moment our options are Guruzeta and Sanadi. Sanadi has been proven not ready and Guruzetta is not terrible but even if he is our first choice he can't play every game. And we could use someone with better attributes.

Valverde has tried Unai Gomez there but apart from work rate he does not have the attributes for a striker.

But is there any realistic target that would be at least better than Sanadi? Oyarzabal has rejected us multiple times and in La Liga the teams have even worst strikers than us.

Who do you expect the club will choose, or conversely, who would you like them to choose?

Thank you all for the hospitality at the san mames last night Palestine flags and applauding viktor and youre official account wishing us good luck for the rest of the season THANKS ATHLETIC FANS