Real Club Deportivo Mallorca is by far the biggest club in the Balearics, and for much of the past 15 years their reserve side, the nattily named RCD Mallorca B, has been the islands second most successful team, which sort of sums up the rather sorry state of football in the region.
 |
The last of the feeders. UD Collerense was
reformed in 2007 and is now Mallorca's 3rd team |
RCD Mallorca was a little late in forming an official reserve side, relying on its relationship with affiliated clubs in and around the Palma area up until the early 1980's. The last of these "feeder" clubs was UD Collerense who hailed from the suburb of Coll d'En Rabassa and played its homes fixtures at the Campo de Fútbol Son Mas. Collerense reached the Tercera in 1979 and four years later, RCD Mallorca decided to acquire the club and its place in the fourth tier. They renamed the club RCD Mallorca Atlético and switched its home to the first team's then main stadium, Estadi Lluis Sitjar. The club's first success as an official reserve outfit came at the end of the 1985-86 season when promotion to Segunda B was achieved. Their stay in the third tier lasted just the one season, but they returned for the 1989-90 season and his time stuck around a little longer, for er... two seasons.
 |
| Home for two seasons, the Campo de Fútbol Miguel Nadal |
The summer of 1991 not only saw the club relegated, but changes by the Spanish Federation to the set up of reserve team football, saw RCD Mallorca Atlético disbanded and RCD Mallorca B set up as a fully professional unit within RCD Mallorca. They also moved out of the Estadi Lluis Sitjar to the Campo de Fútbol Miguel Nadal, a small ground with a single open tier of terracing, around 600 metres to the north. It took a little time to re-establish themselves in the Tercera, but when they finally won promotion back to Segunda B in 1995, the club embarked on its must successful period. The 97-98 season saw Mallorca B back at Lluis Sitjar and in the play-offs for promotion to La Segunda, thanks to a third place finish in the league. Incredibly, the club topped their group head of Granada CF, CP Cacereno & Athletic Club B to win promotion to the second flight. Their stay in La Segunda lasted just the one season, and but for a little more luck they could have avoided relegation. Incredibly, Basque side SD Eibar won their final five matches of the season, to pip Mallorca B to safety by point.
 |
| Faded and crumbling, but still full of character. Lluis Sitjar before the end in 2007 |
Back in Segunda B, Mallorca B narrowly missed out on a place in the play-offs in 1999-00, before performances started to slide and the club eventually dropped back into the Tercera at the end of the 2004-05 season. There followed four seasons of frustration as the club failed in the play-offs for three seasons, before finally winning promotion back to the Segunda B in 2009. Two years earlier, the club left the Estadio Lluis Sitjar and set up home at Son Bibiloni, the club's Ciudad Deportivo, some five miles north of the Mallorcan capital. Recent results have not been great and the club finished 19th at the end of the 2010-11 season. Despite the club being investigated under the bankruptcy laws and initially refused a place in Segunda B, the club stumped up the 390,000€ security bond and acquired one of the places vacated by Alicante C and CD Castellón.
 |
| Son Bibiloni - Spot the stand |
Son Bibiloni or the give it its official title Ciudad Deportiva Antonio Asensio is not the most inspiring of venues, but how many of the new out of town sports cities are? Frankly, given the crowds that attend reserve team football in Spain, a spanking new stadium is nowhere near the top of the list of priorities when developing a club's academy. What Son Bibloni offers is an environment for the first team to train and the younger players to hone their skills, oh yes, and an 80 metre raised concrete terrace for 1200 spectators. Given the vast expanse of land at Son Bibiloni, it's a little surprising that this tribuna has been built on the east side, never the best in sunnier climes. However, allowing for the fact that most of Mallorca B's home matches kick-off at noon in front of a couple of hundred spectators, I can't imagine the complaints are too numerous.
Labels: 2BG3, Islas Baleares
