However, the 'North' team did not use a single Cantabrian player in the tournament, and eventually, the North Federation's negligence of the Cantabrians led to discrepancies between the Basque and Cantabrian representatives which in turn led to the latter abandoning the Northern Football Federation in 1916, which forced the restructuring of the football organization in the north of Spain. Because of this, the Prince of Asturias Cup title holders were unable to participate in the 1916 edition of the competition.
In the early 20th century, the Cantabrian players were part of a combined 'North' team, however, this team usually only featured players from the Basque provinces of Biscay and Gipuzkoa, each of which was also organizing their own representative matches occasionally. This 'North' team, which later evolved into the Basque Country team, participated in the first Prince of Asturias Cup tournament in 1915 at Madrid, and they won the title after beating the Catalan team 1–0 and then holding Centro (a team formed by players from the center of Spain) to a 1-1 draw.