Many Happy Returns?

Cádiz’s centenary year promotion struggle

Segunda División B is a tough league to get out of. Sure, you’ve heard that said by many an embittered lower league manager as a thinly veiled pre-season disclaimer, but with no automatic promotion spots, the only means of escape from the third tier of Spanish football is through a multi-regional play-off system. Little wonder then that it has the lugubrious nickname of ‘El Pozo’ ('The Pit').

Not the best place then for Cádiz to celebrate their centenary season, and it’s been as tumultuous a year as any of their previous 100. With rising debts, dwindling attendances (not helped by the region having amongst the highest unemployment rates in Spain) and protests against the club president, it was hardly the party they would have imagined just five years ago when the club graced the Primers Liga. Los Amarillos have since suffered three relegations, although they clambered out of Segunda B at the first attempt in 2008/09, they were immediately relegated from the Liga Adelante last season.

This season started out as brightly as the glorious Andalucían sunshine for Cádiz, with five wins (and draw against eventual table toppers Real Murcia) in their first six games. But, just as the Cadistas were anticipating a repeat of two seasons ago when their team looked a class apart at this level, a disappointing run of five defeats in seven led to Serbian coach Hristo Vidakovic being shown the door at the Estadio Ramón de Carranza. This was most likely a fire exit as a complete renovation project has left much of the stadium a construction site.

A recurring theme for the early stages of the campaign was a disciplinary record in Cádiz’s games that certainly lived up to the “fiery Latin temperament” cliché. Los Amarillos and their opponents each received eight red cards, with Cádiz finishing three games with just nine men. The 1-0 home victory over AD Ceuta saw the side based in mainland Africa reduced to eight, which was not all that surprising considering they were coached at the time by none other than Andoni Goikoetxea, whose ankle-ligament-shredding tackle on Barcelona’s youthful Diego Maradona earned him the infamous nickname of ‘The Butcher of Bilbao’.

Vidakovic’s replacement, José González embarked on his third spell in charge at the Carranza in just eight years by making an immediate impact, winning his first four games including a notable 2-1 victory over the then leaders Sevilla Atletico (the ‘B’ side of Sevilla FC). Yet Cádiz’s performances were often unconvincing and another inconsistent run at the turn of the year culminated in a 1-1 draw with Lucena in front of just 2,000 fans, the lowest crowd at the Carranza in years. The result also saw Los Amarillos slip outside the top four, and crucially, the play-off positions.

Rayo Vallecano fans sympathise with Cádiz (complete with portraits of the two clubs' presedentes)

But events on the pitch have been the least of Cádiz’s worries. Debts amounting to a cojones-shrinking €13.5m meant administrators were called in to pick their way through some dubious bookkeeping and it was revealed that players hadn’t been paid for two months. With groups from the Middle East and Mexico rumoured to be interested in rescuing the club, the Cadistas sought to apply pressure the club’s owner, Antonio Muñoz with their ‘Vende y Vete’ (Sell and Go) campaign. In an act of extraordinary solidarity, fans of Segunda División Rayo Vallecano - themselves in similar financial dire straits and demanding boardroom changes - displayed banners of their club badge alongside that of Cádiz’s bearing the sentiment, “Two shared emotions, the same big mess”.

Veteran defender Raúl López issued a rallying call for the closing stages of the season: “Son siete jornados y son siete finales.” (“There are seven games and seven finals.”). Standard stuff from a beleaguered skipper you might think, but amazingly it inspired Cádiz to suddenly find their richest vein of form since they took the Segunda División title in 2005. In the penultimate game of the season Los Amarillos faced fellow promotion hopefuls CD Roquetas seeking a sixth consecutive win that would clinch a Segunda B Grupo 4 play-off spot. Of course, they had to do it the hard way, overturning a 1-0 deficit with 10 minutes to go, in front of a rapturous Carranza crowd.

That goal celebration

In the play-off semi-final Cádiz were drawn against Club Deportivo Mirandés who had finished 2nd in Segunda B Grupo 1 (the northern and Basque regions). Dani Cifuentes celebrated Cádiz’s second goal in a 2-0 first-leg victory by making a double-V sign to the Cadistas. Did it symbolise v-for-victory or vende y vete? If they can escape El Pozo and with a Brazilian group fronted by Ronaldinho’s brother the new favourites to take over the club, perhaps it meant both. Here’s hoping Los Amarillos’ big birthday bash can end up being a celebration to remember, because believe me; few cities in the world can do a fiesta as well as Cádiz.