Alaves

Alaves Football Club (founded June 23, 1923, in Alaves, Guipúzcoa, Spain) is a professional football club from Alaves, in the autonomous community of Navarre, in northern Spain. The club has played in La Liga since the 1977–78 season, where it has been mostly relegated to the Segunda División, but it has also competed in the Copa del Rey and the UEFA Champions League.

The club’s home ground is the 18,000-seater La Romareda stadium. It also has a training ground located in the nearby town of Olite.

Alaves was founded on June 23, 1923, in the town of Alaves, in the province of Guipúzcoa, in north-western Spain. At first, the club played in regional leagues, but in 1935 it won its first regional title, and in 1936 it reached the final of the Copa Castilla y León, where it lost to CD Lugo.

Alaves entered La Liga for the 1977–78 season, which was its inaugural top flight season. It spent most of its time in the division, but did manage to reach the finals of the Copa del Rey in 1986 and 2002.

In the UEFA Champions League, Alaves reached the group stages for the first time in its history in the 2005–06 season. After qualifying for the knockout stages, it narrowly avoided elimination by PSV Eindhoven on away goals, but lost the second leg 1–0. In the 2008–09 season it reached the knockout stages, after finishing second in its group behind Atlético Madrid. In the semi-final, it lost to Barcelona on away goals after 8 aggregate matches, which was their first ever defeat in the UEFA Champions League knockout stages.

In the following season, 2009–10, Alaves reached the final of the Copa del Rey after beating Atlético Madrid 3–1 in the semis, and Valencia 2–1 in the final. In the final, they lost 2–1 to Valencia after extra time.

The 2011–12 season was Alaves’ most successful to date. After finishing in 4th place in the La Liga table, they reached the final of the Copa del Rey, where they beat Valencia 3–1 to win their first trophy. The successive 2012–13 and 2013–14 La Liga seasons were disappointing.