The players and coach Miguel Ángel Ávila, without direct promotion
/ INSTAGRAM – CD BADAJOZ
Badajoz is a city cursed in sports. The historic CD Badajoz missed promotion to Spain’s top flight by a single goal in 1996, dissolved in 2012, and was refounded the same year. Círculo Badajoz won the regular season of the former LEB Oro in 1999 but lost in the quarterfinals (since 2008 the first-place team earns direct promotion), and Balonmano Badajoz played in the Honor Plata Division in 2011-12 before disappearing. Of all the sporting misfortunes this border city with Portugal has endured, football has taken the hardest hit.
The refounded CD Badajoz was already financially struggling by 2019 in Primera RFEF, after falling to UD Logroñés in the promotion playoffs (0-1 at home, 3-3 away). That summer, a supposed ‘King Midas’ emerged: Seville businessman Joaquín Parra, who acquired 99.75% of the club’s shares through his company FEVERSTONE. He pumped millions into the club, renovated the Nuevo Vivero stadium, and even reached the round of 16 of the 2019-20 Copa del Rey after knocking out UD Las Palmas and Eibar. But the promotion dream ended on a heartbreaking night at Nuevo Vivero with a 0-1 loss to Amorebieta, marking the beginning of the end. Parra was arrested, and this Monday a trial begins in Málaga for alleged non-payment of VAT at his gas stations, moving money between companies (including the club), and creating fake invoices. He faces 15 years in prison and a €45 million fine.
Don Benito celebrated their well-deserved promotion to Segunda RFEF
/ X / CD DON BENITO
And, as things could only get worse, in January 2022 the company Lanuspe took over the club, run by one of the most disastrous families in football history: the Olivers. Infamously known from their stints at Xerez Deportivo, Córdoba, Betis, and Extremadura, they turned the club into a Marx Brothers’ cabin, but with shoddiness and incompetence instead of genius. When they arrived, CD Badajoz was in Primera RFEF, and this Sunday in Tercera RFEF, the owners’ foolishness prevented the team from reclaiming one of the lost categories. Luis Oliver, the owner’s son, became sporting director and then appointed himself coach. In October 2024, he made a sickening statement: “Anyone who goes against the club, my players, me, my fans, or anything else, I will destroy, and if I can, I will kill them.”
This season has surpassed all previous records. True to their owners’ style, the club failed to pay a significant amount for the training rights of Argentine Santiago Muller, leading FIFA to impose a transfer and registration ban. Consequently, the team could not play the first matchday against Azuaga, and the RFEF awarded that game as a 3-0 loss and deducted three points. Luis Oliver and his cronies even threatened FIFA. Last year, ‘Colate’ Vallejo-Nágera briefly served as club president. Despite all this, coach Miguel Ángel Ávila and the small squad did an exceptional job, winning ten consecutive matches to climb to second place with 68 points, just two behind Don Benito before the final matchday.
The black-and-whites beat Gévora 3-0, but Don Benito’s last-gasp equalizer away at Moralo (1-1) meant both teams finished on 71 points. Direct promotion to Segunda RFEF went to Don Benito on the head-to-head tiebreaker, while Badajoz must now face the play-offs. With the three-point deduction from the start of the season hanging over them and a FIFA transfer ban still in place, the squad’s path to recovery remains uncertain.
