Recreativo de Huelva

Background

Huelva was introduced to football by the British employees of the Rio Tinto Company Limited (RTCL), who began to arrive in 1873 to work at the copper mines of Rio Tinto. Huelva thus became the home to a vast British colony, among whom a certain William Bice stood out, as he was the one who began organizing the first "kick-abouts" between the club's members, which were possibly the very first kick to a football ball on Spanish soil. This colony eventually gave birth to a club in 1878, the Rio Tinto English Club (known in Huelva as Club Inglés Bella Vista), where the mine workers played their favorite sports, such as cricket, rugby, and football. The first president of this club was the Scot John Sutherland Mackay, the newly-arrived company doctor. There are reports of football games between Rio Tinto and Huelva as early as 1882, but these teams were never officially established, so there is no legal record of their existence.

Rio Tinto FC was the catalyst of the Sociedad de Juego de Pelota (Spanish: "Ball Game Society"), which was founded in 1884 by Dr. William Alexander Mackay, the brother of John Sutherland, who was a lover of sports and thus wanted to use physical exercise to improve the health of his patients. He began organizing football and cricket games, usually between his compatriots living in Riotinto and those crews of the British ships, which were held in a large area of marshes filled with flooded soil opposite the Gas Factory run by fellow…

Segunda División Winners (1): 2005–06 Tercera Federación Winners (1): 2021–22 Trofeo Colombino Winners (14): 1965, 1967, 1977, 1979, 1986, 1987, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2016, 2017