The side has competed in national leagues since 1928, gaining its first promotion to the Segunda División in 1933 and then the La Liga in 1944. Sabadell's longest spell in the top flight was from 1965 to 1972, and their most recent from 1986 to 1988. They have reached one Copa del Rey final, which they lost 3–0 to Sevilla in 1935.
By historical standards, CE Sabadell FC is the third best club in Catalonia, after FC Barcelona and RCD Espanyol.
History
In 1901, Joan Saus and a group of youngsters from the Sabadell Catalan Centre founded Centre d'Esports Sabadell, which became fully legalized on 5 June 1906. The club's first games were held in a grass field at Prat de Sant Oleguer but, on 3 June of that year, a stadium in the Creu Alta District was inaugurated, in a game against "Team X" from Barcelona, later known as RCD Espanyol; in 1912, in the same site, the first game under floodlights was played in the country.
Sabadell struggled in their return to the second level finishing in 19th place, being the first side in the relegation zone. However, they were spared when Villarreal CF dropped down a division in the top flight, which led to the automatic relegation of its reserve teamVillarreal CF B. Sabadell finished second level as 16th in 2012–13 season, as 10th in the 2013–14 season. Finally Sabadell finished it as 21st and relegated to third level after 4 years.
Sabadell had a lot of financial problems after the relegation to Segunda B. Japanese owner Keisuke Sakamoto, who had bought the club in 2012, sold it to Aragón-based company Viacron in 2015. Esteve Calzada, a former member of FC Barcelona board and a marketing expert whose company worked for Manchester City, bought the club in 2017. Since then, the club's debt has been restructured. Difficulties in finding a new investor meant that from 2017 to 2019 the club was more concerned with relegation avoidance than real hopes of promotion.
In August 2019, the Club announced an historical agreement with a group of international investors, whereby this Group would achieve majority ownership through periodic capital infusions over the following three years to guarantee institutional stability and financial resources to achieve sustainable success.[2]
The club has multiple supporter groups. Most groups have activities related to the social life of the members. For example, THE WALKING ARLEKIN CLUB has walking excursions during the season, usually before matches.[7] There are also groups like Honor 1903, La Força Arlequinada andSupporters Gol Nord, that focus more on the encouragement of the team, before, during and after the matches. Most of those groups usually concentrate in the northern stand at the Nova Creu Alta.
The club used to have a fan club called Hooligans Vallès. They used to be a far right-wing group which was established in 1993.[8] In 2011, the group was disbanded as an official supporter group. In 2014, two fans were expelled from the Nova Creu Alta, after performing a Nazi salute during a match.[9] However, in 2016, an unofficial Hebrew supporter group was created, under the name CE Sabadell Hebreu - סבאדל בעברית. The group provides news about the club in its Facebook and Twitter pages, for Israeli and other Hebrew-speaking fans.
The fans have good relations with Bristol Rovers, which initially began due to several Rovers fans noticing that the local club had the same colours.[10] They also have a friendship with Gerunda Sud of Girona FC, and rivalries with Desperdicis of UE Sant Andreu, Penya Sport of Palamos CF and Rudes Lleida of Lleida Esportiu.[11]
Anthem
The official anthem of the club is Honor al Sabadell, written by Lluís Papell to the music of Adolf Cabané. However, between 1983 and 1991 the club used Sempre endavant Sabadell as the official anthem, composed by Ramon Montlleó.[12]
References
^"Instalaciones". CE Sabadell FC (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 September 2020.
