FC Jumilla · History

Fútbol Club Jumilla won Group XIII of the Tercera División, the Region of Murcia section of the Spanish fourth tier, in 2014-15, and in June 2015 beat FC Ascó in the play-off between group champions to earn promotion to Segunda División B. That was the biggest sporting achievement of a club founded in 2011 in Jumilla, a wine-making town in the Murcian uplands. It spent four straight seasons in the Spanish third tier before folding in August 2019. Its nicknames were «los vinícolas» (the winemakers) and «los blanquiazules» (the blue-and-whites), after the colours it inherited from its predecessor.

A successor to Jumilla CF

The club was created to fill the gap left by Jumilla Club de Fútbol, which finished the 2010-11 season bottom of Group IV of Segunda B and was wound up by its members on 27 May 2011. A group of supporters led by Gumersindo Jiménez Ripoll, a former president of the old club, set up the new one later that year. Rather than start in the regional leagues, the board took over the Tercera División place held by Moratalla CF. Jiménez Ripoll was the first president. Blas Ruipérez succeeded him after the 2013-14 campaign.

The Tercera División years

In Group XIII the team improved step by step. It finished fourth in 2012-13 and reached the promotion play-offs, where it was knocked out by El Palo FC. A year later it came sixth. The 2014-15 season, with Aquilino Lencina as coach, ended with the group title. In the champions' play-off Jumilla drew FC Ascó: a 2-2 draw away in the first leg was followed by a 3-2 home win, sealed by a Paolo Etamané goal in the 92nd minute that confirmed promotion to Segunda B in June 2015.

Four seasons in Segunda División B

Moving up also opened the door to the Copa del Rey. Jumilla made its debut in the competition in September 2015 and lost 2-1 to Linares Deportivo in the first round. In the league, playing in Group IV, the club stayed up in each of its first three campaigns. It was 15th in 2015-16, reached its best Segunda B finish, 10th place, in 2016-17, and ended 2017-18 in 13th with 47 points. The 2018-19 season went differently: after a very poor second half of the campaign, the team finished 16th and had to play a relegation play-off.

Owners and coaches

The Segunda B era was marked by repeated changes of ownership. In July 2015 control passed to the British company Football & Management Ltd, whose principals eventually vanished with club money. In January 2016 an Italian investment group arrived and also failed to make payments, and in March of that year coach Josico Moreno was sacked. In June 2016 the club was taken over by Li Xiang, Tang Hui and Rubén Iglesias, who became president. Coaches over those years included Walter Chiaraluce, Pichi Lucas, Ángel Cuéllar, Pato, Guillermo Fernández Romo and, in 2018-19, Portugal's Leonel Pontes. In August 2018 the club also signed a partnership with Wolverhampton Wanderers to receive players on loan.

Stadium, colours and reserve side

Jumilla played at the Estadio Municipal de La Hoya, renamed Estadio Uva Monastrell in 2018 after the monastrell grape variety. The home kit was a blue-and-white shirt with blue sleeves, blue shorts and white socks. The away kit was purple, with white shorts and purple socks. Between 2016 and 2019 Estudiantes de Murcia CF served as the club's reserve team.

Relegation and dissolution in 2019

The relegation play-off was against Real Unión of Irun. The first leg in Jumilla on 26 May 2019 ended 2-2, and on 2 June the Basque side won the return match 2-0, sending Jumilla down to the Tercera División. A further administrative demotion followed over unpaid player wages. On 24 August 2019 the club president announced that it would not settle its debt with the Spanish social security system, without which the team could not be registered for any competition. Fútbol Club Jumilla was dissolved in August 2019, after four seasons in Segunda División B.