The Association Sportive Perpignanaise was created on 13 September 1902 and in 1914 it won its first French championship title. In the First World War, seven of its players died. In 1919 the Union Sportive Perpignanaise (USP) was formed, following a merger with Stade Olympique Perpignanais. In 1925 it won the championship again. For reasons unconnected with sport, it lost its name and on 5 May 1933 it was renamed Union Sportive Arlequins Perpignan (USAP).
During World War II the club was champion of France again in 1944 and, in the same year, Gilbret Brutus, ASP player and USP coach, paid for his commitment to freedom with his life, fighting against Nazism in the French resistance. In April 1987, the club changed its name again and became USA Perpinyà-Rosselló.
In 1995, USAP turned professional and became part of the brand image of the city of Perpignan and the Pyrénées-Orientales Department and a veritable symbol of Northern Catalonia.
On 24 May 2003, the USAP, now a professional team, played in the final of the European Rugby Champions Cup in Dublin. As well as other achievements in the lower divisions, it won the French championship in the years 1914, 1921, 1925, 1938, 1944, 1955 and 2009; it won the French Cup in 1935, 1955 and 1994, and has been runner-up in both competitions on many occasions. On several occasions it has played in Barcelona, and it has an ongoing relationship with Catalonia. The club’s anthem is L’estaca and its motto “Sem Catalans!”.
LiberPress Catalonia Award 2011
The USAP has received the 2011 LiberPress Catalonia Award for its exceptional approach to sport and its long history, because it brings youngsters and adults together as part of a sporting activity and under the Catalan flag, and because it represents the defence of Northern Catalonia and the Catalan language and culture, an example of sporting and national values created with a commitment and a conviction that would be difficult to surpass.