1902–03 Catalan Football Championship

1902–03 Catalan Football Championship
Tournament details
Country	Catalonia
Dates	20 November 1902 – 26 April 1903
Teams	11
Final positions
Champions	Club Español (Copa Macaya); FC Barcelona (Copa Barcelona) (1st title)
Runner-up	Hispania AC (Copa Macaya); Club Español (Copa Barcelona)
Tournament statistics
Top goal scorer(s)	Gustavo Green (7 goals) ; Joan Gamper (21 goals)
	← 1901–02 1903–04 →

The 1902–03 Catalan Football Championship was the 3rd staging of the Championship of Catalonia.^[1] This season was peculiar because it comprised two different competitions held the same year.

Due to disagreements between the reigning champion of the tournament, FC Barcelona, and some of the clubs invited, in 1902–03 two parallel competitions were held: an "official", the Copa Macaya organized by Hispania AC and an "unofficial", the Copa Barcelona organized by FC Barcelona. Both are currently recognized as official by the RFEF.^[1]

Copa Macaya

Summary

The third and last edition of the Macaya Cup was to be contested by 5 teams: Club Espanyol, Hispania AC, FC Barcelona, Club Universitari and FC Internacional. The early resignations of Barcelona and Universitari were a severe blow to the competition, which turned it into a simple triangular tournament.^[1] In the end, Espanyol was the champion after beating Hispania 3–1 in a tiebreaker, with Gustavo Green netting twice.^{[citation needed]} Remarkably, Green won all three editions of the Copa Macaya with three different clubs (Hispania, Barça, and Español).^[2]

Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Club Español	4	3	1	9	2	+7	6	Champion
2	Hispania AC	4	3	1	10	3	+7	6
3	FC Internacional	4	0	4	1	15	−14	0
4	FC Barcelona (withdrew)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	Universitary SC (withdrew)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Source: RSSSF
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) goal difference; 5) number of goals scored; 6) fair-play points; 7) playoff match

Results

30 November 1902	Hispania AC	'0 – 2 Annulled'	FC Barcelona	Barcelona
		[1]	Steinberg Lassaletta	Stadium: Camp del carrer Muntaner Referee: Degollada
Note: Barcelona won 2–0, but the result was later disallowed due to Barça fielding an ineligible player.

30 November 1902	Club Español	6 – 0¹	FC Internacional	Barcelona
	?	[2]

7 December 1902	FC Internacional	1 – 3¹	Hispania AC	Barcelona
	?	[3]	?

14 December 1902	Club Español	1 – 0¹	Hispania AC	Barcelona
	?	[ Report]

4 January 1903	FC Internacional	0 – 1¹	Club Español	Barcelona
		[4]	?

11 January 1903	Hispania AC	6 – 0¹	FC Internacional	Barcelona
	?	[5]

25 January 1903	Hispania AC	2 – 1¹	Club Español	Barcelona
	?	[6]	?

Play-off

This championship was extremely competitive, in fact, Club Espanyol and Hispania AC finished level on points at 6, which meant that the title had to be decided in a playoff match that was held a few months later.^[1]

12 April 1903

Club Espanyol	3–1	Hispania AC
Green García	Report	Girvan

Statistics

Top Scorers

Rank	Player	Team	Goals
1	Gustavo Green	Club Español	7
2	Geordie Girvan	Hispania AC	2
3	Sebastian Casanellas	Club Español	1
	Emilio Sampere
	Joaquín García

Copa Barcelona

Summary

After their 2–0 win over Hispania AC in the Copa Macaya was declared invalid for fielding an ineligible player, thus losing two points, FC Barcelona withdrew from the tournament as the club considered the decision totally unfounded and unfair.^[3] The club then broke its relations with the Gymnastics Federation and decides to organize a tournament of their own: The Copa Barcelona.^[4]^[5] Barça was able to pull this off because the club was clearly the most powerful and best organized club in Catalonia and one of the best in Spain, just like Madrid FC had done in the capital with the 1902 Copa de la Coronación.^[3] All the clubs of the city of Barcelona were invited, including the ones who were contesting the Copa Macaya, and the response from the clubs was much greater than expected, registering up to eleven teams, all of them from Barcelona, although three had to withdraw (X Sporting Club, Universitary SC and FC Catalònia) before the end of the tournament.^[1]^[3] The other five participating teams were Català FC, FC Internacional, Irish FC, Iberia FC and Salut FC. The Copa Barcelona is also considered an official tournament nowadays, being later recognized as the fourth edition of the Catalan Championship.^[3] So two rival competitions were organized (similar to the 1910 and 1913 editions of the Copa del Rey), and while Club Español won the third and last edition of the Copa Macaya after beating Hispania AC by 3–1 in the title-deciding play-off, Barcelona won the Copa Barcelona after a tough fight with Club Español, with whom he drew 2–2 both home and away, hedging out in the end by just two points.^[1]

The tournament's board offers prizes to all participants thanks to the financial collaboration of the members of FC Barcelona, with contributions of at least two pesetas and forty cents each.^[3] All participants had a prize: A Cup valued at 250 pesetas for the winner; medals for the first three; a lineman's flag for the fourth; a regulation ball for fifth; goalkeeper gloves for the sixth; a bellows for the seventh and a whistle for the last.^[3]^[6] The prizes may seem ridiculous, in view of today, but at that time it was quite a gesture of greatness for the tournament's board, since these objects were not easy to obtain and were highly valued.^[3] Joan Gamper was the star of the tournament and its top goal scorer with 21 goals, netting a 9-goal haul against X Sporting Club on 1 February 1903 and scoring the winner (0–1) against Hispania AC on 19 April 1903.^[7]

Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	FC Barcelona (C)	14	12	2	0	45	10	+35	26	Champion
2	Club Español	14	11	2	1	34	7	+27	24
3	FC Internacional	14	9	1	4	30	18	+12	19
4	Català FC	14	8	0	6	35	26	+9	16
5	Irish FC	14	4	2	8	25	24	+1	10
6	FC Internacional	14	3	3	8	14	28	−14	9
7	Ibèria SC	14	3	1	10	10	25	−15	7
8	Salut SC	14	0	1	13	6	61	−55	1
9	X Sporting Club	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	(Nota)
10	Club Universitari	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
11	Catalònia FC	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Updated to match(es) played on complet. Source: https://www.rsssf.org/tablesc/cathist.html
(C) Champions

Notes

Day 6: Iberia conceded the points due to the death of Ramon Irla i Serra, father of the president and captain of the club.^[8]^[9]
Day 8: Salut and Internacional gave up the points.
Day 11: all three games were suspended due to rain. Irish, Iberia and Salut conceded the points.
Day 15: Iberia conceded the points due to the death of the mother of the player Castillo.^[10]^[11]
Day 16: Salut gave up the points for Espanyol to be playing in the 1902 Copa de la Coronación in Madrid.^[12]
Day 17: Hispania played with the second team to allow the first to contest the final of the Copa Macaya against Club Espanyol.^[13]

Results

The list below only includes the matches played by Barcelona due to a lack of information about the remaining games.

11 January 1903 Round 1	FC Barcelona	7 – 0	Ibèria SC	Barcelona
	Gamper Ossó Lassaletta	[7]		Stadium: Camp de la carretera d'Horta Referee: Eduardo Alesson

25 January 1903 Round 3	FC Barcelona	2 – 1	Català FC	Barcelona
	Gamper	[8]		Stadium: Camp de la carretera d'Horta Referee: Eduardo Alesson

1 February 1903 Round 4	FC Barcelona	13 – 0 *	X Sporting Club	Barcelona
	Gamper Ossó Lassaletta	[9]		Stadium: Camp de la carretera d'Horta Referee: Cusí

8 February 1903 Round 6	FC Barcelona	6 – 0	FC Internacional	Barcelona
	Gamper Ossó Harris	[10]		Stadium: Camp de la carretera d'Horta

22 February 1903 Round 8	FC Barcelona	Not played	Salut SC	Barcelona
		[11]		Stadium: Camp de la carretera d'Horta

1 March 1903 Round 9	FC Barcelona	6 – 1	Hispania AC	Barcelona
	Steinberg Lassaletta Meyer Ossó	[12]		Stadium: Camp de la carretera d'Horta Referee: Emilio Sampere

8 March 1903 Round 10	FC Barcelona	2 – 2	Club Español	Barcelona
15:30	Gamper Steinberg	[13]		Stadium: Camp de la carretera d'Horta Attendance: 4.000 Referee: John Hamilton

19 March 1903 Round 12	Irish FC	1 – 4	FC Barcelona	Barcelona
		[14]	Gamper Meyer Gass	Referee: Acha

22 March 1903 Round 13	Català FC	2 – 4	FC Barcelona	Barcelona
		[15]	Gamper Steinberg Lassaletta	Stadium: Velódromo de la Bonanova Referee: Mascaró

29 March 1903 Round 15	FC Internacional	Not played	FC Barcelona	Barcelona
		[16]

5 April 1903 Round 16	Ibèria SC	0 – 8	FC Barcelona	Barcelona
		[17]	Steinberg Gamper Parsons	Referee: Mascaró

12 April 1903 Round 17	Salut SC	Not played	FC Barcelona	Barcelona
		[18]

13 April 1903 Round 2	FC Barcelona	3 – 1	Irish FC	Barcelona
	Ossó Almasqué	[19]		Stadium: Camp de la carretera d'Horta Referee: José Barroso

19 April 1903 Round 18	Hispania AC	0 – 1	FC Barcelona	Barcelona
		[20]	Gamper	Stadium: Camp del carrer Muntaner Referee: Ricardo Cabot

26 April 1903 Round 19	Club Español	2 – 2	FC Barcelona	Barcelona
	García	[21]	Gamper Harris	Stadium: Camp de l'Hospital Clínic Referee: John Hamilton

Not counted because X Sporting Club withdrew from the competition.

Statistics

Top Scorers

Rank	Player	Team	Goals
1	Joan Gamper	FC Barcelona	21
2	Udo Steinberg		6
2	Luis de Ossó		6
4	Bernardo Lassaletta		5
5	Stanley Harris		3
2	George Meyer		2
	Julià Mora	Club Español
	Ángel Ponz	Club Español

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "Spain – Final Tables Catalonia". RSSSF. 20 May 2020. Archived from the original on 27 July 2022. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
^ "La identidad de Gustavo Green desvelada después de 120 años" [Gustavo Green's identity revealed after 120 years] (in Spanish). CIHEFE. 17 January 2017. Archived from the original on 29 July 2022. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g "La Copa Macaya, el primer campeonato de fútbol de España" [The Copa Macaya, the first soccer championship in Spain]. elfutbolymasalla.com. 25 January 2018. Archived from the original on 26 November 2022. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
^ "Copa Football Club Barcelona". hemerotecadigital.bne.es (in Spanish). El cardo. 22 January 1903. Archived from the original on 31 October 2022. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
^ "Bases del concurso Copa del F. C. Barcelona" [Bases of the FC Barcelona Cup contest]. hemerotecadigital.bne.es (in Spanish). El cardo. 22 January 1903. Archived from the original on 31 October 2022. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
^ "Historia del FC Barcelona, Web de los Culés" [History of the FC Barcelona, Web of the Culés]. www.webdelcule.com (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 7 November 2022. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
^ "Hispània – Barcelona (0-1) – Copa Barcelona – 19/04/1903". www.fcbarcelona.com. Archived from the original on 17 November 2022. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
^ "Ibèria cedí els punts" [Iberia conceded the points] (in Spanish). La Vanguardia. 11 February 1903. Archived from the original on 11 January 2023. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
^ "Ramon Irla i Serra" (in Spanish). Los Deportes. 15 February 1903. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
^ "Castillo" (in Spanish). La Vanguardia. 31 March 1903. Archived from the original on 11 January 2023. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
^ "Ibèria cedí els punts" [Iberia conceded the points] (in Catalan). Los Deportes. 5 April 1903. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
^ "Salut cedí els punts" [Salut gives up the points] (in Spanish). Los Deportes. 12 April 1903. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
^ "Hispania jugó con el segundo equipo" [Hispania played with the second team] (in Spanish). Los Deportes. 19 April 1903. Retrieved 30 October 2022.