Lleida CF closes an agreement with an investor that guarantees the future of the club

BarcelonaLleida CF has reported that it has reached an agreement with an investor that "guarantees the continuity, stability, and future growth of the club". The club, which has just been relegated to Tercera RFEF after years of struggling to avoid disappearing, has celebrated a step that "is a decisive step that opens a new era full of hope and ambition for the entire blue family, and which should allow the viability plan to be fulfilled within the framework of the insolvency proceedings in which the club is currently involved".

In the coming days, coinciding with the review of the current season, the club will convene a press conference where this information will be further elaborated. The announcement comes right at the end of a strange season, as for the first time Lleida has not been the best club in the city. The creation of Atlético Lleida a few years ago has led to this club, with the support of local businessmen but without a social base, being the one that has played in Segunda RFEF; even though it has been relegated. Lleida CF, the team that defends the long tradition of football of the old Unió Esportiva Lleida, has also been relegated but now guarantees its future with this agreement.

The last 15 years have been complicated for Lleida football. In 2011, the historic Unió Esportiva Lleida disappeared, drowned by debts, and in its place, Lleida Esportiu was born, heir to that tradition but with a short, very eventful life. With brothers Albert and Jordi Esteve in the stands, this club almost made it to Segunda, without luck. Their management caused several problems, such as player lawsuits for non-payment and debts with the Tax Agency and Social Security. All of this seemed to be heading towards a new economic bankruptcy of the club. And it generated problems with the City Council, which even considered expelling Lleida from the Camp d'esports, a municipal property.

In 2022, the Esteves sold the club to former player Luis Pereira, a Galician businessman who had re-established himself as a businessman in Switzerland and tried to improve the situation, without much luck. In fact, some people had already decided that they had to bet on another life by founding Atlètic Lleida. This Club Deportivo Atlètic Lleida is derived from Atlètic Segre, a local training club, and also from the Almacelles club, EFAC. The two entities united in 2019, with people from the local football scene behind them such as Siscu Pujol, the man who at the time had managed to win the auction for the sporting rights of UE Lleida and who became the first president of the new entity before falling out with the Esteves, his partners at the time. The result was a conglomerate of businessmen prepared to present the city with a new club that has never connected with a fanbase that has preferred to continue suffering with the lifelong Lleida. The rivalry between the two clubs has led to fights, debates, and an exchange of reproaches, with the City Council accused of supporting Atlètic Lleida by many fans of a Lleida that has been on the verge of disappearing in recent months, with local fans keeping the club alive until a buyer was found. Finally, the buyer has appeared.