Lleida CF, one of Catalonia’s most historic football clubs, on brink of disappearance

One of Catalonia’s most historic football clubs is on the verge of disappearing. 

It’s been a summer of turmoil at Lleida CF, with each week bringing fresh uncertainties over what the future of the club will look like.

In the first half of the season, Lleida were competing at the top of the table, fighting it out for automatic promotion or at least to clinch a playoff berth. Only two wins after Christmas saw the club finish just above the relegation spots. 

However, the club were demoted a division anyway, as the financial problems mounted, and it looked for a long time like there would be no Lleida CF competing in 2025/26 at all. Currently, the club's debts are around €5 million, with most of it owed to the Spanish Treasury and Social Security. 

Controversially in the western Catalan city, Atlètic Lleida, a club formed in 2019, purchased the place of the demoted Lleida CF in the Segona Federació, the 4th tier of Spanish football, while the historic club will play in Tercera Federació, the 5th tier. To add to the insult for Lleida fans, Atlètic Lleida will also play in the municipally-owned Camp d’Esports stadium, which has historically always been the original Lleida club’s home. Atlètic Lleida will pay fees to Lleida CF as part of the deal to use the stadium. 

As recently as 1994, Lleida were playing in La Liga, and even beat FC Barcelona and Real Madrid in their only season in the top flight. 

But since then, it’s only gone from bad to worse. Lleida were one of many clubs who suffered from their own success. After reaching a league higher than they really had the resources to compete in, club hierarchy looked to overspend to stay competitive. After that didn’t work out on the pitch, players with La Liga wages were left in the squad, but the club were not making La Liga revenues. 

UE Lleida, founded in 1939, were plagued by serious financial trouble for years after their glorious stint at the top table, and even had to refound itself as a new entity, Lleida CF, in 2011, after amassing debts of €28 million.

In this new entity, the chaos would only continue under the ownership of the Esteve brothers, Jordi and Albert, especially after the pandemic. Players went months without getting paid as debts racked up. 

Guardia Civil police even raided the club facilities on suspicion of possible crimes of fraud and money laundering, before the Esteve brothers left in January 2022 under mounting pressure. The club offices saw extraordinary scenes when the new ownership group arrived on the first day, only to find the Esteve brothers remaining in place and allegedly physically assaulting them, as they later denounced to police.

Galician businessman and former UE Lleida player Luis Pereira took over, and his first priority was to pay players who had gone months without a wage. However, the Pereira era hasn’t worked out, and bitter clashes with the city council have only made the situation even trickier. 

Amid a downturn in performances on the pitch, it was revealed in March that players and staff were going unpaid, while shortly afterwards it was announced that the club would be going into administration and investors were sought to keep the club from disappearing completely. Players demanded explanations from Pereira at the last home game of the season, and the club owner announced on social media that he had been ‘scammed’ by potential investors. This summer, the club entered bankruptcy and were relegated administratively. 

Despite the turmoil, people like club deputy president Marc Torres have been working to avoid a winding-up order, and some good news came in mid-August when a judge suspended an order freezing their assets. This means that the club will now be able to accept purchases online in their store, and process season ticket sales online too. So far, with only in-person sales being made, the club have already signed up over a thousand season ticket holders. 

It now appears that Lleida will be able to field a team for the forthcoming season, but on a shoestring budget with a strong focus on young, local players.

On Wednesday evening, Lleida CF held their first home pre-season game, dubbed the ‘brotherhood game’ (‘el partit d’agermanament’) against UE Sant Andreu, who covered the costs of the referees and let the home team keep all revenue from the game. Some 2,600 fans turned out at the Camp d’Esports to witness a new-look Lleida side battle out a brave 0-0 draw with a team from a division above and who will harbour ambitions of gaining promotion to the third tier this season.

CE Europa and Gerard Piqué have also both publicly sent their support to Lleida CF for the summer of difficulties the western Catalan side have gone through. 

Meanwhile, Lleida’s loyal fanbase vow to stick with the historic Lleida club no matter what, with numerous fan groups already announcing in a joint statement that they would never support the newly formed Atlètic Lleida.