Eibar may now be a regular on the LaLiga fixture list, but few people had heard of them before
2014, even in Spain.
That all changed with their unlikely promotion to Spain’s top flight, which put this little
Basque town, with a population of 27,000 people, on the map.
The club was founded in 1940, but largely went unnoticed through its first 60 years
of existence, as Eibar yo-yoed up and down the lower divisions, spending 18 seasons in
the regional leagues, 23 in the third tier and 19 in the second tier.
By the turn of the century, they’d become a second division regular, but even that was
an over-achievement for a club similar in size to Fleetwood Town or Elgin City.
As former president Álex Aranzábal put it, “Eibar’s logical place is in the third division.”
In the 2004/05 season, they came close to promotion to the top level of Spanish football,
but fell short on the final day.
Technically, they were in LaLiga for 26 minutes, between 6.47pm and 7.13pm on June 18th, but
they ended up drawing, while other results also failed to fall their way.
“We’re all quite annoyed,” captain Gaizka Garitano said afterwards, but one day his
dream of winning promotion with Eibar would come true.
By 2012, Eibar had fallen back into the regionalised 80-team third tier and hired Garitano as coach
after two previous failed promotion attempts.
Under his guidance, they reached the play-offs and defeated Alcoyano, Real Oviedo and then
L'Hospitalet to secure promotion.
Now back in the second tier, Eibar had the smallest budget, at €3.5million, and were
favourites for the drop.
After a tough start of just two wins from their first nine matches, Eibar’s form picked
up thanks to their league-leading defence and they inched towards the promotion places.
By the third-from-last weekend of the season, they had a chance of securing an automatic
promotion place that had once seemed unthinkable.
If they defeated Alavés and if Las Palmas lost to Recreativo Huelva then
promotion would be theirs.
In the 61st minute, winger Jota received the ball in the centre of the 5,000-seater Ipurua
Stadium and took aim.
“I hit it as if it was the last ball I was going to hit in my life,” he said afterwards
and he duly struck it well enough for it to earn his side a 1-0 victory.
Las Palmas lost their game 3-2 and Eibar became LaLiga’s smallest team.
However, there was still one final hurdle to overcome.
A Spanish law requires every team in professional football to have a social capital which equates
to 25% of the average expenses of all other teams in the second division, minus the two clubs with the largest expenditures and the two with the smallest.
Due to this red tape, Eibar had to increase their capital value from €422,253 to the
new target of €2,146,525 and 95 cents, even though they were on of Spain’s few debt-free
clubs.
One successful crowdfunding campaign later, they had smashed the target, with people from
more than 50 different countries purchasing the €50 shares to help out this team in need.
That meant Eibar was now part-owned by fans from across the globe, from Spain to Australia
and Oman to China.
It also meant they could claim their rightful place in LaLiga.
Eibar started well and sat as high as 8th by the 2014/15 season’s midway point, but
a disastrous second half of the campaign of two wins, two draws and 15 defeats saw them
finish 18th.
That should have meant relegation, but 13th-placed Elche had overreached in building a squad
they couldn’t afford and were demoted as they owed money to their players and the taxman,
allowing financially-prudent Eibar another chance in LaLiga.
Led by the talented, but sensible, sporting director Fran Garagarza and new
coach José Luis Mendilibar, Eibar had an excellent second LaLiga season, finishing
14th.
They have started the 2016/17 campaign even better and are challenging for a Europa League
spot, meaning the giants of the continent could soon be paying this little valley town
a visit.
Even if European football isn’t achieved, that fact Messi, Ronaldo and Griezmann visit
once per season is still incredible.