Azkar Lugo · History

Azkar Lugo Fútbol Sala, registered as Prone Lugo Asociación Deportiva, was founded in 1984 in Lugo, Galicia. The club played its home games at the city's Pabellón Municipal de Deportes, which holds about 2,500 spectators. It was nicknamed «Transportistas» (the Hauliers) because of its link to the transport company Azkar, whose name the team carried from 2002 to 2014. Before that it had competed as Airtel Prone Lugo (1997-98) and Café Candelas Lugo (1998-2002), and in its last top-flight season it went back to the name Prone Lugo. It spent fourteen seasons in the top tier of the Spanish futsal league, the LNFS.

From the national leagues to the top flight

The club's season records begin in 1996-97, with sixth place in Primera Nacional A, then the third tier of Spanish futsal. A year later, as Airtel Prone Lugo, it finished first and moved up to the División de Plata. In 1998-99 it was third in the second tier. In 1999-2000, sponsored by Café Candelas, it won the league and earned promotion to the División de Honor for the first time. The debut season among the elite, 2000-01, ended in fourteenth place and relegation. The return was immediate: runner-up in the División de Plata in 2001-02, the team went back up and stayed in the top flight for thirteen straight seasons.

The Azkar years in the División de Honor

Playing as Azkar Lugo from 2002, the club settled in mid-table. It was eleventh in 2002-03, seventh in 2003-04, tenth in 2004-05 and eleventh in 2005-06. In 2006-07 it came ninth, and in 2007-08 it reached its top finish, fifth place. Two ninth places followed, in 2008-09 and 2009-10, and an eleventh in 2010-11, the last season before the División de Honor was renamed Primera División. Under the new name the team finished thirteenth in 2011-12, tenth in 2012-13 and thirteenth in 2013-14. The 2012-13 squad included goalkeepers Óscar, César Quijada and Illi and the Brazilian pivot Bruninho. Lugo also hosted the final stage of the 2007 Spanish Futsal Cup, won by Boomerang Interviú with an 8-4 win over ElPozo Murcia in the final.

Cup and Super Cup finals

The 2004-05 season brought the club's first national final. At the Spanish Futsal Cup in Pamplona, Azkar Lugo made it to the deciding match and lost 4-3 to Boomerang Interviú. The same opponent stood in the way in the 2005-06 Spanish Super Cup, played in A Coruña, where the Madrid side won 3-0. Those are the only two national finals on the club's record, both lost to the same team.

The 2005 European Cup Winners' Cup

The only trophy in the club's honours list came in November 2005, in its own arena. From 17 to 20 November, Lugo staged the third edition of the European futsal Cup Winners' Cup, an unofficial tournament between European clubs. Azkar Lugo topped Group B with two wins: 8-2 against Greece's Platon and 4-0 against Croatia's Brodosplit Inzinjering. In the final, on 20 November, it beat Portugal's Boavista 4-0. Riquer scored four goals for the Lugo side over the tournament.

Relegation and final seasons

The Azkar sponsorship ended in 2014, and the team played the 2014-15 season as Prone Lugo. It finished in sixteenth place and dropped to the Segunda División, the second tier it had left in 2002. It was the club's second relegation from the top flight, after the one in 2001. In 2015-16, its first campaign in the second tier since that promotion, it finished twelfth, with 7 wins, 3 draws and 16 defeats in 26 matches.