Resounding sporting failure of Lleida football in a triple header

LleidaStorm winds are blowing for Lleida football. To the category descents of two historic clubs from the region, such as Unió Esportiva Tàrrega (which falls to Segona Catalana) and Borges CF (to Tercera), three more simultaneous ones concentrated in Lleida city are added. It has been a long time since so many sporting failures have been accumulated in the capital: AEM's women's team will no longer continue in the Primera RFEF after thirteen years of competition; Atlètic Lleida, despite having opted to compete in the Segona RFEF, drops dramatically to Tercera; and Lleida Club de Futbol, in addition to falling into the abyss of the Lliga Elit (the sixth level of Spanish competitions), cannot find an investor to cover its debts and is one week away from disappearing.

A complete mess destined to be forgotten, but which forces a rethink of football in the capital. 'This city shames me,' stated the then president of Lleida, Marc Torres, when last week he reported an entrepreneur to the Mossos d'Esquadra who allegedly simulated an investment that was to save the club. The reasons for this alleged scam are still unknown, but the truth is that it sinks a club that, despite continuous failures (on the field and in the offices), keeps alive a fanbase of more than 2,000 unconditional supporters and up to four organized fan clubs and entities. 'It's a feeling that is also passed down from fathers to sons,' justifies Jordi Cortés, the until now coach of Lleida CF and a historic player from the youth academy. 'People feel like they belong to Lleida because it's the continuation of that team that played in the First Division –' Cortés opines '–, and it's this fuel that has allowed the board not to abandon ship until the last moment'.

With the prompt disappearance of Lleida CF, now the fans, despite being stunned by this news, are recovering an idea that had been on hold for months: to create a new team and start again in Quarta Catalana. Spokespersons for Rudes Lleida, the fan club that brings together the largest number of fans, assume it "with resignation, but there is no other option than to support a new project, there are no excuses".

The Association Amics del Lleida already registered the name Lleida 1939 a year ago in case it was necessary to be reborn from the ashes once more. From June 5, when the deadline to clear Lleida CF's debt expires, the entity will possibly set in motion the machinery to create a new club, "but with a model in which the members have the maximum decision-making power and that no longer depends on external investors or external operations", claims the president of the association, Andreu Artés, who cites the model of Club Esportiu Europa as a reference. "When you belong to a team, results and category become secondary; for many of us Lleida is identity, a sense of belonging, the memories of when we were little and went to the stadium with our grandparents", adds Artés.

Other relegations

. Precisely having played in the city's flagship stadium has been their punishment.

"We have to know how to recognize where we come from and who we are: a humble group, a neighborhood group," explains Xavi Baró, delegate of the board of directors for fourteen years and involved with the club for more than twenty. It has been a complicated season, which paradoxically began with one of the club's most important achievements: reaching the semifinals of the Catalan Cup in February 2025, when they lost to the first team of Barça in a Camp d'Esports with more than 10,000 spectators. Precisely having played in the city's flagship stadium has been their downfall.

The Camp d’Esports has become the symbol of a tense coexistence between the city's three main clubs (Atlètic Lleida, Lleida CF, and AEM). They have shared facilities that, according to AEM, have not been ideal. “I had the feeling that, when we played at Camp d’Esports, we were playing away from home,” admits Baró. The poor condition of the pitch and stands that were oversized for most matches have penalized the women's team.

This over-dimensioning has also mainly affected the matches of Atlètic Lleida, a very young club created in 2019 by an investment business group that bought the place Almacelles had in Primera Catalana and which only last season was able to move up to Segona Federació. “The creation of this new club is an attempt to get Lleida football back to the professional category”, argues Xavi Bartolo, the current president of the entity, who precisely played with UE Lleida in Primera in the nineties. The relegations have hurt. Bartolo admits: “We have had a series of years in which Lleida football has been taking steps backwards and we are not capable of progressing”.

Is there room for so much football?

The big question is whether the dimensions of a city like Lleida (which has fewer than 150,000 inhabitants) are sufficient to host up to three high-level clubs. The city of Logroño is a reference. With almost the same population, it hosts Dux, UD Logronyès, and SD Logronyès. The Argentine footballer Juan Agüero, one of the pillars of Atlètic Lleida and who scored the goal to qualify for the Copa del Rey last October, spent years in Logroño and admits that it is very difficult to gather a threefold social mass in these types of municipalities. So far, Lleida CF is the one that has concentrated it and, given its possible disappearance, an opportunity opens up for Atlètic. But it's not easy. The animosity of the fans towards this newly created club is very high. "I have never experienced so much hatred and verbal aggression as this year from the Lleida CF fans," assures Agüero.

Regardless of the controversies, coach Jordi Cortés explains that one of the reasons for the loss of competitiveness of Lleida football is the poor management of grassroots. "The monopoly that Atlètic Segre currently holds in this area should be broken," opines Cortés, who calls for more role models.

For its part, AEM regrets that, despite having up to 800 players in its ranks and a base with great future potential, "there is still a comparative grievance, because women's football has not generated and will never generate what men's football generates," laments Xavi Baró.