Spain and Euskadi set for first-ever meeting at an absolute pelota world championship

The first meeting between Spain and Euskadi at an absolute pelota world championship is now confirmed. The opening match in Buenos Aires will pit the women’s paleta goma teams against each other: Maider Ardanaz will represent Spain against Nagore Martin, playing for Euskadi. It will also be the first Spain-Euskadi match in the history of the competition. The Buenos Aires event runs until 24 October and features nine disciplines, including paleta goma, cesta punta, frontenis and individual and pairs hand pelota.

The match follows a significant institutional step: on 28 December 2024, an assembly of the International Federation, held in Navarre, voted in favour of Euskadi’s entry. In December 2024, the International Federation had recognised the Basque Federation as a full member. Several contests between the two teams have taken place since then, but not at an absolute world championship. Spain and Euskadi first faced each other at the Gernika Nations League in June 2025.

The Spanish Federation had not recognised the official status of the cesta punta competition, organised by the international and Basque federations. It later challenged the vote at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. In January 2026, the court declined jurisdiction over the appeal brought by the Spanish Pelota Federation. The CAS explained that “the FIVP statutes do not contain an arbitration clause allowing decisions adopted by its general assembly to be challenged before the CAS”.

The dispute also drew political comment. Javier Conde, president of the Spanish Federation, said: “There is a political dimension, which I leave to the politicians, who use it when they want to. The sporting dimension is mine, and there is nothing to add there: we will compete, and that’s that. Our athletes carry Spain’s flag at a world championship and make an extraordinary effort to compete at the highest level.” Rodríguez Uribes, president of the CSD, had said that “Basque pelota is not a Spanish sport in the sense that it is practised throughout Spain”.

Euskadi arrives with 41 athletes. At the previous world championship, held in Biarritz in October 2022, Spain topped the medal table with 20 medals: nine gold, nine silver and two bronze. In November 2025, the two teams also met at the frontball world championship, a discipline aspiring to join the Olympic programme at Brisbane 2032. Opening this tournament with their contest gives added significance to a rivalry already played out across several competitions.