Royal Spanish Football Federation

The Royal Spanish Football Federation (Spanish: Real Federación Española de Fútbol; RFEF) is the governing body of football in Spain. Founded on 29 September 1913, it is based in La Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas, a municipality near Madrid.

RFEF organizes the national cup competitions (Copa de S.M. el Rey and Supercopa de España) and administers the competition committee of the Campeonato Nacional de Liga (Primera División and Segunda División), including the handling of the trophy, even though they are organized by LaLiga. It organizes the rest of national league tiers: Primera Federación (3rd), Segunda Federación (4th) and Tercera Federación (5th). It also rules all the female national competitions except the top league, Liga F.

It is also responsible for appointing the management of the men's, women's, and youth national football teams, the futsal and beach soccer. As of 2023^[update], the federation has 30,188 registered clubs and 1,248,511 federated football players.

The Federación Española de Clubs de Football (FECF) was established in Madrid on 14 October 1909, serving as the forerunner of the current "Royal Spanish Football Federation" (RFEF) founded four years later. Some of the first clubs to join this original federation were FC Barcelona, Club Español de Madrid, Sociedad Gimnástica, the Irún Sporting Club, Tarragona Futbol Club, Fortuna de Vigo and Sporting de Vigo.^{[citation needed]} However, other clubs did not recognize the new organization as a single national federation, including relevant entities such as Madrid FC and Athletic Club and the current national champion, Club Ciclista de San Sebastián, and this caused the 1910 Copa del Rey to have two parallel rival cup competitions: an "official", organized by the newly created FECF, in Madrid, won by Barcelona, and an "unofficial", organized by the UECF (Unión Española de Clubes de Fútbol), in San Sebastián, won by Athletic. Both are currently recognized as official by the RFEF.

The discussions to decide the venue of the 1913 Copa del Rey ended up causing another split, with Barcelona and España de Barcelona announcing their departure in the assembly held in May 1912, along with the Gipuzkoan clubs of Real Sociedad and Vasconia, and on 29 November 1912, these clubs founded the "Spanish Union of Football Clubs" (UECF) in San Sebastián, and again two parallel tournaments were held.

Both the Spanish Federation of Clubs (FECF) and the Spanish Union of Clubs (UECF), tried to become the representatives of Spanish football. Both organizations had a monarch as parents, them being Queen Victoria Eugenia (leading a tournament of the Union of Clubs, for which she awarded a cup) and King Alfonso XIII (honorary president of the Federation since its foundation). King Alfonso XIII accepted the honorary presidency of the UECF and granted it the title of "Royal" on 22 February 1913 (the same title was granted to FECF later on 30 May 1913). In March, it was reported that the Committee of FIFA did not accept the registration of the FECF due to the federative split existing in Spain, forcing both federations to merge or to create an interfederal committee similar to the one existing in France (Comité français interfédéral). When it was founded, the FECF joined the UIAFA, but at that point that governing body had disappeared, so it was urgent and necessary to join another international federation. Madrid FC was a founder of FIFA in 1904, but after that it did not take part in any congress or meeting and it lost its membership, so there was no Spanish representative affiliated with FIFA between 1905 and 1913.

The RUECF try to gain recognition by holding an international match against a Ligue de Football Association team (LFA was part of the French CFI, which was a member of FIFA), held on 25 May 1913 at the Amute in Hondarribia. José Berraondo performed the functions of the Spanish coach and refereed the match. The game ended in a 1–1 draw with Spain's goalscorer being the captain Juan Arzuaga. According press, after that match Alfonso XIII called Juan Padrós, president of the FECF, to inquire about what is happening and ask him to find a solution to the existing problem, and also Daniel Burley Woolfall, president of FIFA, contacted Carlos Padrós, former president of Madrid FC, to ask him about these new federations.

The FIFA Congress in Copenhagen held on 31 May 1913 rejected the entry of Spanish football, by not accepting the coexistence of two federations, which means that Spanish clubs cannot play international matches with FIFA member clubs. Also at the end of May, the FECF organized an Assembly and Juan Padrós resigned. A new board of directors was then created and Ricardo Ruiz Ferry (sports journalist) was elected president, with General Adolfo Meléndez and Antonio Bernabéu, as vice president and secretary, respectively. In July, the RUECF sent a letter signed by its secretary Julián Olave to RFECF proposing to reach a merger agreement between the two federations. Ruiz Ferry went to San Sebastian at the end of July to meet with the representatives of the RUECF and negotiate a definitive agreement with them. An agreement was reached to merge both federations and provisionally constitute four regional federations (east, west, north and center), whose delegates would attend the constitutive assembly of a new entity on 1 September 1913 at the headquarters of the Real Aero Club de España, in Madrid.