BM Benidorm · History

Club Balonmano Benidorm is the handball club of Benidorm, in the province of Alicante. Since 2025 it has played in the División de Honor Plata, the second tier of Spanish men's handball, after eleven straight seasons in Liga ASOBAL. The club was founded in 1994 and plays at the Palau d'Esports L'Illa in Benidorm. Since 2016 the arena's central court has been named after Liliana Fernández Steiner, a beach volleyball player born in the city. The first team has also played under sponsor names such as Servigroup Benidorm and TM Benidorm.

Foundation and rise from the regional leagues

The present club was formed in 1994 and spent its early years in the regional leagues, well below national level. Things changed in the 2010-11 season, when Javier Abínzano became president. He was a businessman from Navarre and a former Altea player, and he took over while the team was still in the regional categories. The new board's first target was to reach Primera Nacional. The first team won one promotion after another and took four years to get from the regional leagues to the top flight. According to Abínzano, only twice did it stay in the same division for more than one season. The youth system grew at the same time, from four teams to more than two hundred players by 2019. That year the club also had a reserve side at national level and a women's team in División de Honor B.

Promotion to Liga ASOBAL in 2014

In the 2013-14 season, Fernando Latorre's Servigroup Benidorm finished fourth in the División de Plata regular season, with 18 wins, 3 draws and 9 defeats. That put them into the promotion play-off, held in Alcobendas on 24 and 25 May 2014 with a single place at stake. Benidorm beat Amenabar Zarautz 26-22 in the semi-final. In the final they beat the hosts, Alcobendas, 26-25 after extra time. On 25 May 2014 the club won promotion to Liga ASOBAL for the first time. In its first season in the division, 2014-15, it finished sixth with 32 points (14 wins, 4 draws and 12 defeats).

Eleven seasons in ASOBAL

With Fernando Latorre as coach, the team established itself in the top division. Its best Copa del Rey came in 2019-20: Benidorm reached the final, played in Madrid in March 2020, and lost 40-25 to FC Barcelona. Finishing as runners-up gave the club its first place in a European competition. In August 2020 Benidorm hosted the Supercopa ASOBAL final, again against FC Barcelona, who won 38-18. The club's best league finish came in 2021-22, when it was fourth in Liga ASOBAL with 35 points (16 wins, 3 draws and 11 defeats). Only FC Barcelona, Granollers and Bidasoa Irún finished above them.

European campaigns

The club's first European campaign, in the 2020-21 EHF European League, was disrupted by the pandemic. Benidorm were due to play the second leg of the second qualification round against Fivers in Vienna on 29 September 2020. Six players tested positive for Covid-19, the health authorities confined the squad and the team could not travel. The EHF declared the tie over and the club was out of the competition. The EHF Court of Appeal rejected Benidorm's appeal in October 2020. In June 2021 the Court of Arbitration upheld the elimination and turned down the club's claim for financial compensation. The second campaign came in the 2022-23 EHF European League, under the name TM Benidorm. The team played in the group phase, in Group B with Flensburg-Handewitt, Valur, Ystads, Ferencváros and PAUC Aix. It won two of its ten matches, both 33-32: away to Ferencváros in Budapest and at home to PAUC.

Arena and youth system

The team plays at the Palau d'Esports L'Illa, the city's main indoor sports venue. On 17 October 2016 the city council named the central court after Liliana Fernández Steiner, and the club presented all of its teams there for the 2016-17 season. The provincial council of Alicante gave the club the Special Mention for 2014 in its Provincial Sports Awards, presented in 2015. By 2019 handball was the second most played school sport in Benidorm, behind football. According to the club, about 200,000 euros of its budget of roughly 700,000 euros went to the youth system that year.

Relegation to the División de Honor Plata

The 2024-25 season, played again as Servigroup Benidorm, ended in relegation. In February 2025 the club sacked Sergio Carballeira, a coach who had come through its own youth system, and in March it appointed the Serbian Marko Krivokapic. The team finished sixteenth and last, and in June 2025 it went down after eleven consecutive seasons in Liga ASOBAL, from 2014 to 2025. In 2025-26 it played in the División de Honor Plata.