Mota Zurdo, D. (2020). Entre la pasión y la gloria: el fútbol riojano a través de Haro Sport Club, 1913-1929. Logroño: Instituto de Estudios Riojanos, 196 p.

Abstract

The author highlights that David Mota's work arises to debunk the "non-centenary" of Haro Deportivo in 2014—the result of a politically motivated use of history to claim the status of the oldest club in the region—by proving that football arrived in La Rioja through commercial relations and infrastructure links with the Basque Country, and that Logroño, rather than Haro, was the true initial driving force behind Riojan football. To overcome the scarcity of archival sources regarding sports in Haro during the first decades of the 20th century, the researcher relies on a rigorous analysis of local and regional press archives, which enables him to trace the evolution from youth football with Haro Football Club in the 1910s to the establishment of the senior team Haro Sport Club in 1921.

In his conclusions, Javier Zúñiga emphasizes how the book avoids becoming a mere chronicle of match results by contextualizing the local case within the broader development of football as a mass sport in Spain and its connection to contemporary hygienist movements. Although the trajectory of Haro Sport Club was not that of a successful or long-lasting team, Mota frames it as the cornerstone that established the fan identity and passion for football in the town, making this book the definitive reference for understanding the origins of football in La Rioja Alta.