1904 Copa del Rey

1904 Copa del Rey
2nd Copa del Rey
Tournament details
Country	Spain
Teams	4
Defending champions	Athletic Bilbao (2nd title)
Final positions
Champions	Athletic Bilbao
Runner-up	Club Español de Madrid
Tournament statistics
Matches played	3
Goals scored	15 (5 per match)
	← 1903 1905 →

The Copa del Rey 1904 was the second staging of the Copa del Rey, the Spanish football cup competition.

The competition was played in 1904 in Madrid. It was notable for its chaotic development and the fact that Athletic Bilbao won the trophy without playing a game.

Details

Originally, three teams were to participate, one for each region. The newly formed Madrid Football Federation, who organized the competition for the first time (the previous tournament was organized by Madrid CF), invited Athletic Bilbao representing Biscay and Espanyol of Barcelona representing Catalonia. Madrid was to be represented by the winner of a preliminary round between Club Español de Madrid and Madrid-Moderno (a merger of Madrid CF and Moderno). The three teams were to contest the cup in a round-robin format.

Before the tournament, Espanyol, unhappy with the competition system, announced they would not travel to Madrid. Then two more teams from Madrid, Moncloa FC and Iberia Football Club, were admitted into the competition, forcing a change to the schedule.

As a result, the four Madrid teams were scheduled to play a single-elimination tournament to decide their representative for the Copa del Rey final against the automatically qualified Athletic Bilbao.^[1]

The competition started on 13 March 1904, but on 19 March the first problems arose: the semi-final qualifying match between Club Español de Madrid and Madrid-Moderno ended in 5–5 draw. The captains of both teams agreed not to play extra-time, but failed to reach an agreement on when they should replay the match. Español wanted to play the next day, but Madrid-Moderno refused, citing the rules of the tournament which stated that a replay could not be played less than 48 hours after the previous game.

The next day, Club Español, went to replay the match, but Madrid-Moderno failed to appear.^[2] The regional federation, whose president Ceferino Avecilla also happened to be president of Español de Madrid, ruled in favour of Español, and they were declared winners on default.

While the Cup final was originally scheduled for 26 March, the inclusion of Moncloa and Iberia into the tournament at the last minute necessitated an extra qualifying game and delayed the final. On 27 March, Español and Moncloa faced one another, and Español were winning 1–0 when their defender Hermúa was injured, being diagnosed with a broken tibia and fibula. The referee then suspended the match,^[2] at which point Español claimed the victory. During a meeting of the Madrid Association of Foot-ball Clubs, the president of the organization, Avecilla, proposed to accept this claim, but as he was also the chairman of the claimant club, his proposal was rejected. To resolve this conflict, a lottery was held, which favoured Español, and named them as finalists.

But Español had not won their regional games: they had tied one game (winning the replay after their opponent failed to appear) and the other had been abandoned, which led Athletic to lodge a formal complaint. For various reasons, the Madrid Association were unable to quickly resolve the matter, and also faced a rush of players from the Basque club to return to their occupations: the Association decided to scratch the final and award the cup to Athletic as defending champions.^[1]

Madrid qualifying tournament

Semi-finals

13 March 1904

Moncloa Football Club	4–0	Iberia Football Club
? ? ? ?

Tiro del Pichón, Madrid

19 March 1904

Club Español de Madrid	5–5	Madrid-Moderno
? ? ? ? ?		Joaquín Yarza Pedro Parages Federico Revuelto Antonio Alonso ^[3]

Tiro del Pichón, Madrid

The replay was scratched and Español declared winners as Moderno failed to appear.

Final

25 March 1904

Club Español de Madrid	1–0	Moncloa FC
?

Tiro del Pichón, Madrid

The match was abandoned at 1–0 due to a serious player injury; Español were declared winners.^[2]

Copa del Rey Final

27 March 1904

Athletic Bilbao	Not played	Club Español de Madrid

Tiro del Pichón, Madrid

The qualification of Español was disputed; after much deliberation, and due to logisticial and various other issues, the Final was scratched and Athletic (who were not required to qualify) were awarded the Cup.^[1]

Copa del Rey 1904 Winners
Athletic Bilbao 2nd Title

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c "Copa del Rey Alfonso XIII 1904". linguasport.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 August 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Spain - Cup 1904". RSSSF. 13 January 2000. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
^ "Copa del Rey Alfonso XIII". Corazonblanco.com. Archived from the original on 13 June 2017. Retrieved 16 August 2022.

[linguasport-1] "Copa del Rey Alfonso XIII 1904". linguasport.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 August 2022.

[rsssf-2] "Spain - Cup 1904". RSSSF. 13 January 2000. Retrieved 16 August 2022.

[3] "Copa del Rey Alfonso XIII". Corazonblanco.com. Archived from the original on 13 June 2017. Retrieved 16 August 2022.

[1]

[2]

[3]

v t e Copa del Rey
Seasons	1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1928–29 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1944–45 1946 1947 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1951 1952 1952–53 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1969 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
Finals	1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 (FECF & UECF) 1911 1912 1913 (FECF & UECF) 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Related	Finals 1902 Copa de la Coronación Final Real Madrid v FC Barcelona (1916 Copa del Rey) 1937 Copa de la España Libre Aragón Championship Asturias Championship Central (Castille) Championship Catalonia Championship Gipuzkoa Championship North (Biscay) Championship South (Andalusia) Championship Real Madrid 11–1 FC Barcelona (1943) AD Alcorcón 4–0 Real Madrid (2009)

v t e 1903–04 in European football
« 1902–03 1904–05 »
Domestic leagues	Belgium Denmark England Germany Hungary '03 '04 Italy Netherlands Ireland Scotland Switzerland
Domestic cups	England Netherlands Ireland Norway '03 '04 Scotland Spain '03 '04 Wales

v t e 1904–05 in European football
« 1903–04 1905–06 »
Domestic leagues	Belgium Denmark England Germany Hungary '04 '05 Italy Netherlands Ireland Scotland Switzerland
Domestic cups	England Netherlands Ireland Norway '04 '05 Scotland Spain '04 '05 Wales