In 1918, following several disagreements between the clubs in the North Federation of Spanish football, covering the Basque provinces of Biscay and Gipuzkoa, the National Committee of the Spanish Federation agreed to divide the existing region into separate championships. Thus, for the 1918–19 season Gipuzkoan clubs launched their own championship while the North Championship continued comprising the Biscay teams and the re-entry of Racing Santander, representing neighbouring Cantabria. In their last season as members of the North group, Real Unión went on win the 1918 Copa del Rey. Clubs belonging to other provinces were also affiliated to the Gipuzkoan Federation, together with those based in the province itself. Clubs from Navarre and La Rioja were affiliated with Gipuzkoa, the most notable being those of CA Osasuna and CD Logroño, who played in the top level of the Gipuzkoa championship; Logrono eventually even managed to win the title twice. In 1928 the Navarre Federation was founded and Osasuna abandoned the Gipuzkoa championship, although by 1929 they had been reinstated, with the competition becoming the Gipuzkoa-Navarre Combined Championship. In 1931, clubs from Aragón were added to the competition that became known as the Gipuzkoa-Navarre-Aragón Combined Championship, although the Guipuzcoan teams remained dominant. In 1934 the Spanish Federation carried out an important restructuring of the national tournaments, so that the regional championships were replaced by the superregional ones, in which the best clubs of different regional federations were grouped. In the case of the Basque region, the Basque Cup was launched in 1934–35. The teams of Gipuzkoa and Navarre were integrated into the Basque Cup, while CD Logroño and the Aragón teams were integrated into a new Cantabria-Castile-Aragón Cup. These tournaments were played for two years, until being interrupted by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. During the last months of the war in 1939, football activity was resumed in some areas controlled by the Nationalist side, under the impulse of the Spanish Federation and the regional federations. Six teams participated in the reborn Gipuzkoa Championship, of which the championAlavés and runner-up Donostia took part in the 1939 Copa del Generalísimo. The novelty of this tournament was the inclusion of teams from Álava in the federation, since they had until then been affiliated to the Biscay Championship. The Gipuzkoa-Navarre-Aragón Combined Championship resumed in the 1939–40 season, again providing qualifying for the Spanish Cup, since then called Copa del Generalísimo. However, restructuring approved by the Spanish Federation in 1940 quickly led to the disappearance of the regional championships.
Seasons summary
Summary of Champions
Gipuzkoa representative team
In the first half of the 20th century, the provincial federation selected a representative team for friendly matches, and also took part in the inter-regional :es:Copa del Príncipe de Asturias de fútbol|Prince of Asturias Cup. Prior to the split between Gipuzkoa and Biscay, their players also formed a combined 'North' team which evolved into the Basque Country team. In 2013, a match was staged between the amateur teams of Biscay and Gipuzkoa resulting in a 1–1 draw, won by Biscay on penalties, to commemorate the centenary of the Biscay Federation, as had also taken place in 1964 for the 50th anniversary. The centenary of the Gipuzkoa Federation occurred in 2018, but the organisers opted for a conventional friendly between its two biggest clubs – Real Sociedad and SD Eibar – to mark the occasion rather than any match involving representative teams; that was also the case for the 50th anniversary in 1968, when Real Sociedad played twice against Alavés.
