The Pamplona club's promotion also sets up a Basque invasion on La Liga next season. The 2016-17 La Liga season will feature five Basque clubs next season. Athletic Bilbao, Real Sociedad and Eibar remained in the league while Alavés won the Segunda división a few weeks back and now Osasuna's play-off victory.
Next season will be the first La Liga season since 1931-32 that the Basque region will have five clubs competing. On that occasion the clubs representing the region were Arenas de Getxo, Alavés, Athletic Bilbao, Donostia which is what Real Sociedad were called as in this era as all clubs had dropped the Real from their names and finally Unión club Irún.
Both Arenas de Getxo and Real Unión these days find themselves in the 3rd tier, Segunda B.
The previous season, 1930-31 is the only other season in which five Basque clubs have taken part in La Liga. So next season will be the third season in the eighty-six seasons of La Liga this will have happened.
As a consequence of this rather incredible feat, the Segunda División next season will be a Basque free zone as Athletic Bilbao's B team, Bilbao Athletic ended last season in bottom place and went down the the Segunda B with no other Basque side managing to get promoted from the Segunda B in their place.
The challenge now is can all five clubs stay up. You would have to assume that both Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad would be pretty ok of any relegation fears but the other three will be in for a testing season. So here's hoping that all five will extend this incredible feat.
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