Lleida CF: A fight for survival
A Catalan club who were once in LaLiga now find themselves in a battle to stop their club being liquidated for the second time in just over a decade.
In Catalunya a region that is a hotbed of football, one club is having one of the worst seasons of its history and despite all the odds is refusing to give up.
Lleida is the regions sixth biggest city with a population of over 140,000 easily capable of sustaining a club in the higher divisions despite many in the city being fans of Barcelona. The city was established in the sixth century and has a rich history it was once under siege by Julius Caesar during a civil war in the Roman Empire. Ironically the main football club is now itself finding itself under siege during what feels like a civil war in the city.
Lleida has a complicated history when it comes to football, UE Lleida were the historic club in the region reaching LaLiga in 1950 for a season, they spent 24 seasons in the second tier during their history and again reached LaLiga in 1993.
That promotion was achieved by legendary coach Mane who spent seven seasons overseeing some of the best times in the clubs history before going on to take Alaves famously to the UEFA Cup Final against Liverpool.
That season in LaLiga was a solitary one but one that will live long in the memory with the club famously beating both neighbours Barcelona who had Cruyff’s dream team and Real Madrid during that season.
Lleida almost returned to the top flight but fell in the promotion play-offs, despite attempts to return such as hiring Juande Ramos and having players such as Carles Busquets and Raul Tamudo. Lleida not only failed to return to LaLiga but fell out of Segunda in 2001 falling into the dreaded regionalised third tier.
It took three years for the club to climb out of the well but the overspending in the years after LaLiga eventually came back to bite them like so many other clubs during that period. While Lleida returned to Segunda things weren’t the same and the clubs trajectory was a downward spiral.
(Lleida in happier times celebrating promotion to LaLiga)
By 2011 Lleida were €28 million in debt with half of it owed in taxes to social security and the club was eventually liquidated. Lleida CF took their place, the club has mainly found itself bouncing between the third and fourth tiers.
Given the sorry state of UE Lleida by the end you would hope lessons would have been learnt but fast forward to 2022 and the Esteve brothers who owned Lleida had left the club with big debts once again failing to keep up with tax bills.
While Lleida have been struggling, a new club has entered the picture in Atletic Lleida. The club which is a grouping of different clubs from over the years has significant financial backing and has slowly won the support of the city council but hasn’t won the hearts of the town with most supporting the historic Lleida.
With Lleida teetering financially it’s felt like the walls have been closing in, Atletic Lleida have been angling to play at the home of Lleida Camp d’Esports speaking with the council and in 2024 the council served an eviction notice on Lleida who had been refusing to groundshare.
The council rather than try to help Lleida has at times been actively hostile, even when offering the club €1.2 million over the usage of the stadium it would have left Lleida in a precarious position with the court ruling in the case agreeing the deal wasn’t beneficial to Lleida.
“The offer does not guarantee the use of the stadium, does not protect the club, and is detrimental to it in a restrictive manner.”
Not only that but the club had to change their name to avoid legal issues. From a club who had been dreaming of becoming a LaLiga club regularly in the 90s and an established Segunda club they now found themselves in a relegation battle season to season to stay in the fourth tier.
Last season saw the club finish 13th but with the current owners refusing to put in any more money having put in roughly €3 million to keep the club afloat after the Esteve brothers running of the club, the situation looked dire.
With wages owed to players the Spanish federation rules are clear that clubs who have outstanding bills to players or other clubs at the end of the season are administratively relegated. Even worse was to come when the clubs place in the fourth tier was bought by upstarts Atletic Lleida.
It’s unfortunately common practice in the lower levels of Spanish football for clubs to be able to buy vacant positions, clubs such as FC Andorra, UD Ibiza and Estepona have all jumped up through the leagues, even the re-formed Lleida went straight to the third tier having bought UE Lleida’s spot.
With debts of around €5.5 million and relegated to the fifth tier it felt almost inevitable that the club would once again be liquidated. Amazingly though Vice-President Marc Torres refused to let the club die.
Setting up a shoe-string budget of around €800,000 for the season and with a focus on getting fans through the door to support the club, he set out to keep the club alive and to carry on.
Lleida entered administration with an external administrator coming in to manage the finances and allowing the club to be registered in the fifth tier. The next step was to try to build a squad on a small budget to compete in the fifth tier.
The club announced an open training session and were blown away by the support with fans queueing to gain entry and support the club in the most difficult of moments, a deal was also struck to groundshare with Atletic Lleida although the dispute and the eviction process with the council is still ongoing and there is seemingly no prospect of the club and the council working together constructively to help the club survive.
While Atletic Lleida games have been played out in front of tiny crowds in the fourth tier and the club battling against relegation despite grand ambitions from their ownership group.
Home and away Lleida have seen incredible support with their fanbase refusing to give up and good numbers turning up to support the team. Last weekend Lleida who have had support from fellow Catalan clubs such as Europa, Sant Andreu, FC Andorra and many others were gifted 100 free tickets by Europa for their clash against Europa B.
Lleida distributed them out for free to their fans as a thank you for their support in such uncertain times.
In the summer when the clubs future was in the balance both Europa and FC Andorra played a friendly against each other at Lleida’s stadium to help support Lleida with Gerard Pique turning up to help support the fundraiser.
Sant Andreu who were scheduled to play a friendly against Atletic Lleida were forced to cancel the game by their fans who were angry at the situation and have a close historic bond with Lleida fans.
The club has found some revenue streams impacted, such was the uncertainty over the clubs future, they’ve been unable to sell this season’s kits to their fans although they’ve finally received stock with fans ordering the kit with no known date of when they’d receive the kit to help the finances.
Due to the administration the club was unable for a while to process online purchases meaning all ticket sales had to be done in person and they weren’t able to do an international style fundraiser similar to ones done in the past like Real Oviedo or Real Murcia.
There is no dressing up just how tough a season it has been with the club fighting relegation to the sixth tier and marooned in the relegation places. Slowly though the form has picked up with the team putting together a four-game unbeaten run before defeat on Sunday.
Week after week and regardless of the result the players end the game with the fans, when your club is so close to the wall for a second time results go out the window, the fans just want a club to support, their club and not one forced on them by the council or by a rich investor group.
Whether Lleida can survive long term is still up in the air with an investor ideally needed but those inside the club and the fanbase are refusing to give up on their club and are doing all they can to keep up the history and legacy of Lleida.