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Real Betis Balompié, ook wel bekend als Betis Sevilla, is na twee jaar afwezigheid weer terug in de Primera División, de hoogste tijd voor een eigen topic dus!
Clubgeschiedenis
The name is derived from Baetis, the Roman name for the Guadalquivir river. Betis initially attracted support from the working classes although a large number of aristocrats, including the King of Spain also supported the team. Real was added in 1914 after the club received patronage from King Alfonso XIII. Some fans argue the Betis is the true Real as it was the first to receive royal patronage.
Foundation
Great rivals Sevilla Football Club were officially created in October 1905. This was followed two years later (September 1907) by the city's second club Sevilla Balompié. Balompié literally translates as football, as opposed to the most commonly adopted anglicised version: futbol. Balompié was founded by students from the local Polytechnic Academy, and were in operation for two years before being officially recognised (in 1909), despite this 1907 remains the official foundation date of the club.
Following an internal split from Sevilla FC another club was formed, Betis Foot-ball Club. 1914 saw the culmination of a merger between Betis Foot-ball Club and Sevilla Balompié. With the patronage title, the club became Real Betis Balompié.
Fans continued to refer to the club as Balompié, and themselves were known as Los Balompedistas, until the thirties when Betis and the adjective Beticos became common terminology when discussing the club and its followers.
Golden years (the 1930s) and decline
During the Spanish Second Republic both Betis and Madrid dropped Real from their names, thus the club was called just Betis Balompié until after the Spanish Civil War when it would revert back to the full name. Betis marked their 25th anniversary year in style winning their first Segunda División title in 1932, thus becoming the first club from Andalusia to join La Liga.
In the First a great squad was formed under the guidance of Patrick O'Connell which on the 28th of April 1935 won the league, to date Betis one and only top division title. This win made Betis only the fourth of nine different teams to lift the trophy.
A year later, true to its idiosyncrasies, Betis went from the top down to finish only seventh. This was due to the dismantling of the champion team because of the clubs poor economic situation and the arrival of the Civil War, meaning that just 15 months after lifting the league title only two champion players were left: Peral and Saro. No official league was held during the between 1936 until its resumption for the 1939-40 season and the first year back highlighted Betis decline as exactly five years after winning the title the club was relegated.
Darkest period
Despite a brief return to the top division, which lasted only one season, the club continued to decline and in 1947 the worst fears were reached when they were relegated to Tercera División. Many fans see the ten years they spent in the category as key to the 'identity' and 'soul' of the club, a time that saw it win sympathies all across Spain. During this time Betis earned a reputation for filling its stadium and having a massive support at away matches, known as the Green March.
When the side returned to the second level in 1954, it gained the distinction of being the only club in Spain to have won all three major divisions' titles. Much of the credit for guiding Betis through this dark period and back into the Segunda lies with chairman Manuel Ruiz Rodríguez.
Benito Villamarín
In 1955, Manuel Ruiz Rodriguez stepped down from running the club believing he couldn't offer further economic growth, he was replaced by Betis most famous former president Benito Villamarin. During his reign Betis returned to the top division in 1958–59 and achieved a best-ever third position in 1964. His purchase of the Estadio Heliópolis in 1961 is seen as a key point in the history of the club - the grounds were called the Estadio Benito Villamarín until 1997.
Villamarín is also credited with helping launch rising star Luis del Sol, who would go on to earn 16 caps for Spain, but also had to make unpopular decisions such as selling him. Villamarín would step aside after 10 years at the helm and would die of cancer one year later, in 1966.
Just one year after Villamarín's departure the club would again be relegated to division two, then rising and falling almost consecutively until consolidating their place in the top level from 1974–75.
Copa del Rey success and Europe
On 25 June 1977, Betis played Athletic Bilbao at the Vicente Calderón Stadium, Madrid, in the Copa del Rey final. The match finished 2–2, with Betis winning 8–7 after a staggering 21 penalties. This rounded off a solid season in which the club finished fifth in the league.
After that triumph, Betis competed in the European Cup Winners' Cup: after knocking out A.C. Milan 3–2 on aggregate in the first round, the side reached the quarterfinals where they lost to FC Dynamo Moscow. In spite of a good overall performance in Europe, the team suffered league relegation.
The following year Betis quickly returned to the top flight and a period of good times for the club. The next three seasons saw three top-six finishes, and UEFA Cup qualification in 1982 and 1984. 1982 saw a first round defeat to S.L. Benfica, who would go on lose in the final, and the next participation also ended in the first round, on penalties against FC Universitatea Craiova.
During the summer of 1982, the Benito Villamarín hosted two matches as part of the 1982 FIFA World Cup, and also witnessed the Spanish national team's famous 12–1 hammering of Malta in order to qualify for UEFA Euro 1984.
In 1986, Betis lost in the final of the soon-to-be defunct Spanish League Cup, against FC Barcelona.
Economic crisis and Manuel Ruiz de Lopera
Betis again returned to a club rising and falling from the First almost every season until 1992 when it was forced to meet new rules and regulations, meaning the club was required to cover a capital of 1,200 million pesetas, roughly double that of all the first and second division teams, despite being in level two at the time.
In just three months the fans raised 400 million pesetas, an equivalent to between 60-100% of most top division teams, and vice-president Manuel Ruiz de Lopera stepped in providing economic guarantee while himself becoming majority shareholder as the team narrowly avoided relegation.
Serra Ferrer success
After another three seasons in the second division, with the club managed by Lorenzo Serra Ferrer, Betis returned to the top flight for the 1994–95 season, subsequently overachieving for a final third position, thus qualifying to the UEFA Cup.
In the European campaign, Betis knocked out Fenerbahçe SK (4–1 on aggregate) and 1. FC Kaiserslautern (4–1) before losing to defeated finalists FC Girondins de Bordeaux (3–2). In 1997, thirty years after winning the trophy for the first time, the club returned to the final of the Spanish Cup, again in Madrid, although this time at the Santiago Bernabéu, losing 2–3 against Barcelona, after extra time.
Incidentally Barça was the club Serra Ferrer would leave Betis for that summer, to be replaced by former player Luis Aragonés. Aragonés would only last one season with the club leading in to the eighth position, and to the quarterfinals in the Cup Winners' Cup, losing 2–5 on aggregate to eventual winners Chelsea.
Aragonés was followed by the controversial reign of Javier Clemente, who spat on a fan and implied Andalusia was another country! The team slipped down the table, finishing eleventh and being knocked out of the UEFA Cup by Bologna F.C. 1909 in the third round. For the next couple of seasons Betis went through numerous managers, a relegation and a promotion, after which the team finished sixth in the league, with Juande Ramos at the helm.
Ramos was gone after just one season, being replaced by former Cup Winners' Cup-winning manager Víctor Fernández. He led the team to eighth and ninth in the league and the third round of the 2002–03 UEFA Cup, being knocked out by AJ Auxerre (1–2 on aggregate), during his two-year reign.
For 2004, Fernandez was replaced by the returning Serra Ferrer who guided the team to the fourth position in the top flight. They also returned to the Vicente Calderón, on 11 June 2005 for the domestic cup final, lifting the trophy for only the second time after an extra-time winner by youth graduate Dani, in a 2–1 win against CA Osasuna.
The league finish meant Betis became the first Andalucian team to compete in the UEFA Champions League, and it reached the group stage after disposing of AS Monaco FC in the last qualifying round (3–2 on aggregate). Drawn in Group G, and in spite of a 1–0 home win against Chelsea, the club eventually finished third, being "demoted" to the UEFA Cup, where it would be ousted in the round of 16 by defeated FC Steaua Bucureşti (0–0 away draw, 0–3 home loss).
Centenary celebrations
Betis celebrated their centenary year in 2007. The festivities included a special match against AC Milan, the reigning European Champions, on 9 August, with the hosts winning 1–0 thanks to a Mark González penalty early in the second half. Seven days later, the club won the Ramon de Carranza Trophy held in neighbouring Cádiz, beating Real Zaragoza on penalties in the final, after defeating Real Madrid in the semi-final.
Surrounding the celebration, it was a time of great change in terms of the playing and technical teams, with eight new signings replacing fourteen departures. During the two seasons (2006–07 and 2007–08) that encompassed the centenary year Betis had four different managers. During the latter campaign, the club was the 37th-best followed team in Europe regarding average attendances.
Segunda División
After many years of staving off relegation, Betis' 2008–09 season culminated with a 1–1 draw against Real Valladolid at home. With this outcome, the club finished 18th in the table and consequently was relegated to the second division.
On 15 June 2009, over 65,000 Beticos including icons such as Rafael Gordillo, del Sol, Hipólito Rincón, Julio Cardeñosa and others joined the protest march in Sevilla with the slogan "15-J Yo Voy Betis" to let the majority owner 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."
Despite the protests, no upper management changes were made during the the season, which would ultimately see Betis fail to gain promotion back to the top level.
Betis speelt zijn thuiswedstrijden in Estadio Benito Villamarín
Het Benito Villamarín heeft tegenwoordig een capaciteit van ruim 52.000 plaatsen.
Gemiddeld aantal toeschouwers sinds 2000:
2000-2001: 29.381
2001-2002: 36.842
2002-2003: 35.067
2003-2004: 32.713
2004-2005: 33.263
2005-2006: 38.421
2006-2007: 38.737
2007-2008: 37.421
2008-2009: 37.137
2009-2010: 28.730
2010-2011: 31.000
Zelfs in de Segunda trekt Betis steevast rond de 30.000 toeschouwers!
Selectie 2011-2012
1 Iñaki Goitia
2 Isidoro
3 Fernando Vega
5 José Dorado
6 Juan Calahorro
7 Juanma
8 Arzu
9 Jonathan Pereira
10 Beñat
11 Momo
12 Juande
13 Casto
14 Salva Sevilla
18 Iriney
19 Jorge Molina
20 Achille Emana
21 José Cañas
22 Javier Chica
23 Nacho
24 Rubén Castro
26 Miki Roqué
27 Nélson
28 Ezequiel
29 Mario
30 Javier Matilla
31 Fabricio
37 Toni
-- Rodri
-- Damián Petcoff
-- Jefferson Montero
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17-07-11, 11:18
Real Betis Balompié: Terug in de Primera División
