The horror film about Catalonia's most controversial football club

BarcelonaA few days ago, the sole judge of the Spanish Football Federation confirmed the administrative relegation of Som Maresme due to its outstanding debts. This means that the former Badalona Futur, which lost its Second Division status on the pitch last season, will also be unable to play in the Third Division due to a ruling that paints a very uncertain future for the entity: it is not guaranteed registration in the Elite League and could be forced to start from scratch in the Quarta Catalana, the last one. It is the umpteenth chapter in one of the most bizarre stories in Catalan football, that of a club that a decade ago competed in the Second Division, called Llagostera, and that in a matter of five years has changed hands, names, and locations several times amid non-payments, lawsuits, eviction notices, and deception.

From the Costa Brava to the metropolitan area

Founded in 1947, the Llagostera of a lifetime, that of Isabel Tarragó and Oriol AlsinaIn 2021, the club was renamed UE Costa Brava and established in Palamós. A year later, drowning in debt and having been relegated to the Second Division of the RFEF, it changed ownership and moved to Badalona with the help of lawyer Toni Freixa, a former Barça director and former candidate for the Barça presidential elections. Badalona Futur was born, with Freixa as CEO and shareholder, and with a merger agreement with CF Badalona, under which it would be integrated into the structure of the scapulated club. Ultimately, the agreement fell through, and in the summer of 2023, the two entities clashed amidst backlash.

Hours after the split was confirmed, Futuro was put up for sale for one euro. However, the buyer had to assume and guarantee payment of its debts, amounting to 600,000 euros. Already separated from CF Badalona and without the possibility of playing at its home stadium, the club moved to Vic to play the 2023-24 season after registering. in extremis in the Second RFEF, the fourth tier, and assemble a squad quickly and efficiently. Against all odds, the team managed by Ferran Costa won the Federation Cup and led the standings (the champions went straight to the First RFEF) for most of the season, but fell just short of promotion after falling in the play-off.

It had been months since the president, Toni Freixa, had reached an agreement to sell the club to Atlético Lleida, who according to sources from that dressing room directed Badalona Futur in the shadows and paid the salaries - all except the last one and the bonuses - since September 2023. But the team from the capital of Segrià, which denies everything, He ended up giving up on purchasing the entity due to "social responsibility"; a decision that, once again, jeopardized the survival of Badalona Futur.

A former Girona owner wanted by Europol

L'Hospitalet seriously considered acquiring the club, but ultimately ruled it out. With the club based in Premià de Dalt, Toni Freixa finally transferred it at the beginning of last season to the Girona businessman Josep Delgado, an old acquaintance of Catalan football. Between 2010 and 2015, he was the majority shareholder of a Girona team that he established in the Second Division and that was on the verge of promotion to La Liga for the first time in history twice. Delgado, who was under a international investigation order for an alleged multi-million dollar fraud related to copper exports, he directed the entity from a distance and in 2016 was imprisoned in PolandHe spent 21 months in jail. He maintains that it was an injustice and that he was never convicted.

When he took control of Futuro, Delgado declared that he had made the decision without having all the information: the debt was not 150,000 euros as he had been assured, but 600,000; and the club was facing a 975,000 euro lawsuit from Badalona for the non-merger and a loan of more than a million euros claimed from Lleida. A few months after buying the club, he sold it to Sedrak Petrosyan, a Catalan businessman of Armenian origin who, among other businesses, directs a project to build a Barcelona-inspired district in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan.

"I will bury Badalona Futuro"

Upon taking over the club in early 2025, Petrosyan took aim at his predecessors. In his opinion, debts to suppliers, the Treasury, Social Security, employees, and players had accumulated, and many of the players didn't have money to buy Christmas presents, were about to be evicted from their homes, and had reported the non-payments to the AFE (Federal Association of Professional Associations), which is why the club was on the verge of disappearing on the 3rd. He also stated that "I would bury Badalona Futur" –"it's a fool," he said– and that would give it a new identity and take root permanently in Premià de Dalt and the coastal region.

He kept his promise and made the club the current Som Maresme, but he couldn't prevent the club's relegation from the Second Division to the Third Division of the RFEF. This is compounded by an administrative relegation and the uncertainty of which division it will compete in next season, if at all. In a recent post on the club's social media, Petrosyan asserted that the current ownership "has fulfilled all its obligations" and that "this outcome is a consequence of administrative problems inherited from the previous management."

Delgado has defended himself with a harsh statement. to Catalonia Football Petrosyan contradicts him and accuses him of lying, of carrying out "negligent and fraudulent management" and "of using the club as a showcase for his phantom projects, such as the Barcelona District." "Relegation and exclusion from the competition are not a failure, they are the culmination of his plan of destruction," the Girona businessman declares in the final chapter of a series that threatens to bury the most controversial football team in Catalan football.