SD Compostela

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SD Compostela
Full nameSociedad Deportiva Compostela
Founded1928
GroundEstadio Multiusos de San Lázaro,
Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain
Capacity16,666
ChairmanAntonio Quinteiro
ManagerYago Iglesias
LeagueSegunda División B
2019/20Tercera División, 1st

SD Compostela is a football club which plays in Spain.

History[change | change source]

Founded in 1928, Compostela spent the better part of that and the following decades playing professional football. On October 28, 1962, the newly formed SD Compostela merged with the Club Arenal.[1] The decade of the 1970s was irregular. The team played in the Tercera División, in the Regional category and in the new Segunda División B.[2] Its first promotion to a semi-national stage occurred in 1977, with a promotion to Segunda División B (Group 1), which lasted just one season; Compos promoted again in 1980, this time lasting six years.

Relegation in 1986 was compounded by off-field controversy surrounding the actions of then president Francisco Steppe. He resigned amid allegations of receipt of payments to throw a game against Pontevedra CF, which would assure the opposition's maintenance in the category. The late 1980s saw a significant restructuring of the club both at board and management levels and, in 1990, Compostela regained third-level status.

The following campaign was to prove the club's most successful to date. On 23 June 1991, a capacity crowd of 8,000 at the Estadio Municipal Santa Isabel, saw goals from Juanito and Ochoa (two) clinch a 3–1 victory in the final play-off match against CD Badajoz, for a first-ever Segunda División visit.

The move to Estadio Multiusos de San Lázaro coincided with the continuing rise in the team's fortunes and, at the end of 1993–94, following a 3–1 play-off victory against Rayo Vallecano, Compostela reached La Liga.[3] Compostela did remarkably well, and reached a best finish of 10th in 1995–96, mainly courtesy of strikers Christopher Ohen and Bent Christensen, whom totalled 23 league goals.

After four seasons at the top, Compostela was relegated after losing a relegation play-off match to Villarreal CF on the away goals rule, despite playing overall attractive football. The club was also about to start a downward spiral; after a relegation to the third level in 2001 the team returned the following year but, in the following campaign, played to a backdrop of off-field distractions, with the players and staff going unpaid for months – a final ninth place was not enough to prevent another relegation, as the club failed to meet the 31 July deadline to settle all wage debts.[4]

References[change | change source]

  1. "HISTORIA". SD Compostela (in European Spanish). Archived from the original on 2020-07-29. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  2. "HISTORIA". SD Compostela (in European Spanish). Archived from the original on 2020-07-29. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
  3. "El Compostela asciende al cielo de la Primera" [Compostela reaches Primera heaven] (in Spanish). El Mundo Deportivo. 2 June 1994. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  4. SD Compostela, el primer equipo de Galicia (SD Compostela, Galicia's first team) Archived 2013-05-26 at the Wayback Machine; Notas de Fútbol, 20 December 2005 (in Spanish)