Get to know our next opponent: Racing Club de Ferrol
Green top, white shorts and one hundred years of tradition. Racing Club de Ferrol’s colours have a long history of appearing all across Spain’s football grounds. Ibiza’s next opponent celebrated its centenary in autumn of last year, an historic mark for one of the country’s classic but humble clubs that still keeps adding to its legacy after being founded on 5 October 1919. The club was created to become one of the competitors of Galicia’s powerhouse clubs at the time which were Deportivo La Coruña as well as both of Vigo’s teams Sporting and Fortuna, which merged to become Celta in 1923.
With the creation of league football in Spain, Ferrol began to compete in the Third Division. It took five years for the club to move up to the Second Division which they remained in almost consistently up until 1960. What followed were thirty years of struggles between the Segunda B and Third Divisions while Dépor and Celta celebrated major victories, competing in Europe as well as the Copa del Rey.
The green and whites’ return to the Second Division (which lasted for six seasons between 2000 and 2008) allowed the team’s youngest supporters to enjoy the status of being an LFP club. It’s from this time that one of this club’s most interesting facts stems: it’s the club that has competed for the longest amount of time in the Second Division without ever actually reaching the top flight. In a total of 34 seasons in the Second Division, however, the club can look back on several promotion phases. The best ranking was achieved during the 1939/1940 league campaign.
Racing Club de Ferrol long-term aspirations undoubtedly consist of taking part in a promotion playoff to make a long-awaited return to the Spanish Second Division. This season, the club is battling hard to create some breathing space between the drop zone and a mid-table placement. While finishing higher than in mid-table at this stage of the competition is mathematically still possible for Emilio Larraz’ side, given this club’s proud history, it would almost seem to be a must in the minds of many proud supporters of this historic club from the A Malata stadium (a ground which holds twelve-thousand spectators).
