Castellón de la Plana - Nou Estadi Castalia

In recent times, Club Deportivo Castellón has been forced to live in the shadow of Villarreal CF. If the fans of this historic club didn't think matters could get much worse, they didn't count on demotion at the end of the 2010-11 season after the club failed to pay the players wages. They are now playing in Group VI of the Tercera and are a long way from the heights that saw them play in La Primera as recently as 1991.

The sun hasn't set on CD Castellón just yet, but it's come mighty close

Football was brought to the town of Castelló de la Plana at the turn of the 20th century by local citrus traders who had watched the game in the UK. Within ten years, several clubs had sprung into life, but it was the success of SD Cervantes FC that gave rise to the current club. By 1918, Cervantes had become the city's leading club and was a serious rival to Valencia CF & Gimnástico FC, so much so that they won the Campeonato Regional de Valencia in 1921. The desire to have a club named after and representing the city saw Cervantes effectively dissolved and Club Deportivo Castellón formed at a special meeting on 20 July 1922. Initially, home matches were played at Campo de la Carretera de Valencia, before the club moved to their first purpose-built built enclosure in November 1923. The Campo de Sequiol was to the south of the city on the Calle de Herrero, and was opened on 3 November 1923 when Castellón played RCD Espanyol in a friendly. Sequiol had an initial capacity of 6,000, made up mostly of simple terracing, although the west side did feature a narrow propped cover and seating at the rear of the terrace. Castellón continued to make progress, although club president Mallach's decision to 'sale' a match to Valencia in 1925, led to his resignation and Castellón's decision to change from white shirts to their now familiar black & white stripes.

The club was invited by the RFEF to compete in the inaugural Segunda B championship of 1929, finishing third and missing out on promotion to the second tier by a point. A year later and with its first Campeonato Regional de Valencia under its belt, Castellón competed in and won the re-jigged Tercera division, beating Barakaldo in the play-off final. The club debuted in La Segunda in the 1930-31 season and made a steady start with an even 18 points. Another steady season followed in 31-32, before Castellón hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons in season 32-33. Struggling at the bottom of La Segunda, Castellón entertained CF Oviedo at The Campo de Sequiol on 29 January 1933. The home crowd, unhappy with referee Julio Ostalé officiating, attacked him, causing the match to be abandoned with Oviedo two goals to the good. The RFEF suspended the use of the ground, forcing Castellón to play their remaining four home matches at Valencia's Mestalla. Given the bad blood between the two sides, Castellón refused to honour the remaining home matches and was suspended by the federation. The club subsequently resigned from the RFEF and their followed a period of inactivity, due in part to the resignation and then the Civil War.

After the war, CD Castellón was reformed by former president and now mayor of Castellón, Vicent Traver Tomás. With the RFEF now very much under the influence of General Moscardó, La Segunda was realligned along geographical lines, with representatives from Spain's largest cities invited to partake. Castellón jumped at the opportunity and after over six years of inactivity, the club returned to the second tier on 3 December 1939, with a 1-3 win at Granollers. They finished fourth in their first season back and a year later, against all the odds, Castellón finished top of the southern section of La Segunda. Although they only finished fourth in the play-off group, Castellón were given a final chance to ascend when they faced Zaragoza at Real Madrid's Estadio Chamartin. A 3-2 victory saw the club reach La Primera, a mere 19 months after reforming. That first season saw the club finish in a comfortable eighth place, some seven points clear of the relegation play-off places. If Castellón was ready for la Primera, the Campo de Sequiol was not. Although the club extended the capacity to 8,000, the old enclosure was on borrowed time, as the club and the city needed a new ground. The old stadium did have a memorable final couple of seasons however, with Castellón achieving its best ever top flight finish of fourth in 1942-43, following it up with fifth place a year later. 

The city chose a site close to the Rio Seco, a kilometre or so north of the city centre. Work started in March 1943, but was hampered by the fact that so much work was required to level the site. The 25,000 capacity stadium was built in a horse-shoe configuration and featured an athletics track, and unusually, basketball and handball courts behind the goals. A single tier of terracing swept from the north to the south side of the stadium, where a cantilevered cover was erected over the stadium's only significant bank of seats. There was a very narrow line of seats under an equally narrow propped cover on the north side, but blink and you would miss them. A smaller curved terrace stood at the east end of the ground. However, the stadium's stand out feature was the Marathon Tower that stood over 40 metres in height at the west end of the ground. The Stadium was named the Estadio Castalia, after the mythical Greek nymph, which was rather appropriate as it was handed over to the Frente de Juventudes, or youth movement on completion. It was inaugurated on 4 November 1944 when Castellón played Atlético Madrid (Neé Aviación) under the watchful eye of General Moscardó. As tenants, Castellón chose to play on at Sequiol for a few more years, only using the new stadium when a big team came to town. The last match at the old Campo de Sequiol was on 2 November 1947, when Castellón lost 0-2 to Malaga. The club then became permanent residents of the Estadio Castalia, where they would remain for the next 40 years.

Regrettably, by the time Castalia became the club's regular venue, it was confined to the second division. It would take another 25 years of toil to get back to the top flight, some of which time was spent in the Tercera. Finally, at the end of the 1971-72 season, Castellón and Castalia were back in La Primera, thanks to a last day win over Racing Santander. The following 72-73 season will go down in the club's annuls as probably its greatest. Not only did they manage to finish fifth in the league, the club reached its first, and lets be frank, likely to be its only final of the cup. Guided by Real Madrid loanee Vicente Del Bosque, Castellón put up a creditable performance, losing 0-2 to Athletic Club at the Bernabéu. With Del Bosque back at his parent club, Castellón struggled during the 1973-74 season, finishing 16th in a tight division, but was ultimately relegated back to La Segunda. There followed a period of mid-table finishes before La Segunda title was won for a second time in 1981. Once again it was a short stay and 12 months later Castellón returned to the second division. By now, the Estadio Castalia was showing its age. The municipality had taken over ownership and the once full length cover had been shorn of its wings. In dire need of a new stadium, the municipality took the decision to rebuild Castalia and looked to Barcelona and the Mini Estadi for inspiration. The old stadium was given a grand send-off when Castellón beat Recreativo Huelva 5-1 on 11 May 1986.

The rebuild would require Castellón to find another home for the following season, but rather than head a few miles south to those upstarts at Villarreal, the club spent a season by the sea. Grao de Castellón to be precise and the minuscule Campo San Pedro. Embellished with temporary stands, San Pedro was the most unlikely and smallest stadium in the second division during the 86-87 season. Housing just over 6,000, and up tight to the town's beach, Castellón made San Pedro a home from home, losing just two matches and even beating division champions and old rivals Valencia 1-0. Meanwhile, back in town, work was under way on building a new stadium. Designed by Joaquin Tirado, it borrowed heavily from the design of the Mini Estadi. The orientation of the new build was turned 90° with the new main stand now up against the marathon tower. At a cost of 500m pesetas, the new stadium had an all-seated capacity of 15,000 and was full to the brim on 17 June 1987, when Castellón played Atlético Madrid in a friendly, just as they did 40 years earlier when the old Castalia opened. After a season of settling in, Castellón won their third second division title in 88-89 and returned to La Primera. They earned a creditable 14th place finish in 89-90, but year later Castellón was relegated and haven't made it back since.

The Nou Estadi Castalia, realigned and ready

The next 20 years saw Castellón split its seasons between the second & third tiers. The seasons in La Segunda were usually spent at the wrong end of the table, whilst good campaigns in Segunda B were few and far between. When they did get it right in the regular season, the play-offs would often trip them up. Then came the 2010-11 season and all of its woes. Economic problems became evident midway through the season when reports that the players had not been paid surfaced. There were even on-pitch protests from the players, with some taking legal action against the club. With the debts outstanding at the seasons end, Castellón was demoted to the Tercera. Even then, the RFEF held out an olive branch, no doubt worried about maintaining the numbers in Segunda B after the demise of Benidorm CF & UE Lleida and the demotion of Alicante CF. The directors would not or could not meet the wages and so Castellón started the 2011-12 in the Tercera for the first time in 43 years. 

What's a nice stadium like you doing in a division like this? D.E.B.T.

On face value, the Nou Estadi Castalia looks unchanged from when it first opened 25 years ago. It has however undergone a few, subtle changes. In January 1988 the seats behind the goals were removed in advance of a Copa del Rey tie with Barcelona. This raised the capacity to 17,000. Upon promotion back to the La Primera in 1989, two rows of seats were added to the rear of the stands behind the goal and the east Preferencia, adding another 1,000 to the capacity. The terracing behind the goals were re-seated in 1996, giving the stadium a seated capacity of 14485, or 16,000 in total. The outside of the stadium has also been spruced up, as has the magnificent marathon tower, although it is no longer the focal point it once was and now has the air of a naughty schoolboy, being made to stand in a corner, behind the main stand. 

Like the nearby Aeropuerto, nothing will be taking-off for a while

These past two decades can't have been very easy for the supporters of Castellón. Watching their club slip slowly into decline as Villarreal win the plaudits and the town's young fans. Villarreal has now surpassed Castellón's collective total of seasons in the top flight, and whilst El Submarino Amarillo's recent descent to La Segunda would have been greeted by some fans of Castellón with cheers, the reality will set in at the end when their beloved team line up for the league fixture against the third team of Villarreal.