Real Betis Balompié S.A.D. is a Spanish football club in Seville founded in 1907. The team currently plays in Segunda Division. Its home stadium is the 52,700-seat Manuel Ruiz de Lopera and its home colours are green and white. Real Betis celebrated their centenary year during the 2007–08 La Liga season. Real Betis were relegated in the last round of the 2008-09. Despite very little success in the form of titles, Real Betis were noted as the 37th best followed team in Europe as regard average attendances during the 2007–08 season. [1]

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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 city rivals Sevilla already played this competition but with a different format, known as European Cup, in the 1957-58 season. Betis are also the only Spanish club to have won the 1st, 2nd and 3rd division leagues. Supporters of Real Betis are known as béticos . The club 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 Huelva Recreation Club 2-0. With the exception of two Spanish players on the Huelva team, the players on both teams were British. Despite this historic event, it was not until 1905 that Sevilla FC was formed. The name is derived from Baetis , 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 the club'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 the club 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 - 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 2006–07 and 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 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, and Mariano Pavone, and fourteen sales.

Segunda División

After many years of staving off relegation, Betis' failure in the 2008-2009 season culminated with a 1–1 draw against Valladolid in front of their supporters. With this draw, Betis finished 18th in the table and consequently, has been 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 the club 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. Despite this interest, it seems highly unlikely that Manuel Ruiz de Lopera will step down anytime soon in the foreseeable future.

Stadium information

Estadio Manuel Ruiz de Lopera is a football 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. Despite much planning, the stadium has yet to be fully renovated, and half of it remains unchanged.

See main article: Manuel Ruiz de Lopera

Club honours

• La Liga :
• * 1 – 1935
• Copa del Rey :
• *2 – 1977, 2005
• Segunda División :
• * 5 – 1931-32, 1941-42, 1957-58, 1970-71, 1973-74

Minor Tournaments

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

Competition participation

Domestic

• Primera Division: 46
• Segunda División: 25
• Tercera División: 7

Players

Current squad

As of August 31, 2009 - ^{[2] [3] [4]}

No. Position Player 1 {{flagicon Ricardo Pereira 2 {{flagicon Melli (Spanish footballer) 3 {{flagicon Fernando Vega 4 ;;">

Chief Press Officer

Notable former managers

see also Cat:Real Betis managers

;Spain Luis Aragonés Domènec Balmanya César Javier Clemente Luis del Sol Llorenç Serra Ferrer Javier Irureta Juande Ramos

;Argentina Carlos Timoteo Griguol Héctor Cúper ;Slovakia Fernando Daucík ;Chile Mark González ;France Luis Fernández ;Hungary Ferenc Szusza

;Ireland Patrick O'Connell ;Netherlands Guus Hiddink ;Uruguay Enrique Fernández

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 1999–2000 La Liga season and so competed in the Segunda División during the 2000–01 season. They were promoted on their first attempt. ^[5]

Season	Pos	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1996–97	4	42	21	14	7	81	46	77
1997–98	8	38	17	8	13	49	50	59
1998–99	11	38	14	7	17	47	58	49
1999–00	18	38	11	9	18	33	56	42
2001–02	6	38	15	14	9	42	34	59
2002–03	8	38	14	12	12	56	53	54
2003–04	9	38	13	13	12	46	43	52
2004–05	4	38	16	14	8	62	50	62
2005–06	14	38	10	12	16	34	51	42
2006–07	16	38	8	16	14	36	49	40
2007–08	13	38	12	11	15	45	51	47
2008–09	18	38	10	12	16	51	58	42

Records

• Best La Liga position:
• *First - 1934-35
• Worst La Liga position:
• *Twentieth - 1990-91
• Spanish Selección internationals:
• *26
• Greatest home win:
• *Real Betis 7-0 Real Zaragoza - 1958-59
• Greatest away win:
• *Cádiz CF 0-5 Real Betis - 1977-78
• Greatest home defeat:
• *Real Betis 0-5 Real Madrid - 1960-61, Real Betis 0-5 CA Osasuna - 2006-07
• Greatest away defeat:
• *Athletic Bilbao 9-1 Real Betis - 1932-33
• Greatest recovery for:
• *Real Betis Vs. FC Barcelona - 2007-08 - from 0-2 to 3-2
• Greatest recovery against:
• *Betis - RCD Espanyol - 1999-00 - from 2-0 to 2-5

References and footnotes

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