Peña Sport · History

Campo de San Francisco in Tafalla opened on 26 March 1951 with a friendly against Athletic Club. Since then it has been the home of Peña Sport Fútbol Club, the football club of this town in the Zona Media of Navarre. Peña Sport was founded in the autumn of 1925, when several boys’ and youth teams from Tafalla merged, and it has worn a blue shirt and black shorts from the start. Next to the stadium are two more pitches, one artificial and one dirt, where its youth teams train.

Origins and early grounds

Peña Sport’s first ground was Valmayor, about two kilometres east of the town. In 1927 the team moved to the Barranquiel district, next to the convent of San Francisco Javier. In 1941 it went back to the Valmayor area, to a ground known as Campo de San Isidro. Its first major trophy came in 1931, when it won the Copa Navarra. After the Civil War it played in the Primera Regional and won it in 1946-47, 1950-51 and 1953-54.

From regional football to the Tercera División

The 1953-54 title took the club up to the Tercera División, then the third tier of Spanish football. It played there for three seasons, from 1954 to 1957. It then spent almost twenty years in Navarre’s regional leagues. Its only return to the Tercera in that period came in 1973-74, the year it first played in the Copa del Generalísimo. The club went up for good in 1977, after winning the Regional Preferente. It has not dropped below the Tercera since then, and the division became the fourth tier when the Segunda División B was created. In those years Peña Sport often took part in the early rounds of the Copa del Rey.

Titles in the Navarre group

In the 1990s the club became a regular near the top of the Navarre group of the Tercera. The Tafalla side won the group in 1992-93, 1993-94, 1996-97, 1998-99 and 1999-2000, and finished second in 1994-95 and 1997-98. Those titles took it into several promotion play-offs. In the summer of 2000 it reached the Segunda División B, the Spanish third tier, for the first time. Its first season there ended in relegation, in 18th place. It went back up in 2002, and in 2002-03 it finished 14th, its best position in the Segunda B.

Between the third and fourth tiers

Between 2000 and 2018 Peña Sport went up and down between the Tercera and the Segunda B. It spent ten seasons in the Segunda B, always in short spells: 2000-01, 2002 to 2005, 2007-08, 2010-11, 2012 to 2014, 2015-16 and 2017-18. In between, it won the Navarre group again in 2005-06, 2011-12, 2014-15 and 2016-17. The 2015 promotion came after it knocked out SD Formentera in the play-off between group winners. It also won the Navarre stage of the Tercera’s Copa Federación in 2011, 2013, 2016 and 2018. In 2007 the club toured China.

The Copa del Rey

Its best Copa del Rey run came in 2006-07, when it reached the round of 32 and faced CA Osasuna. In the first leg, played at San Francisco on 25 October 2006, it drew 0-0 with the Pamplona club, which was then in the top flight. In the second leg at El Sadar on 8 November, Osasuna won 4-0. On 2 December 2021 Tafalla hosted a professional club again, in the first round of the 2021-22 Copa del Rey. Málaga CF won 3-0 there with goals from Paulino de la Fuente, a David Lombán penalty and Roberto Fernández, in front of about 800 spectators.

From the Segunda RFEF to the centenary

The 2020-21 Tercera title gave the club a place in the Segunda División RFEF, the new fourth tier created that year. It lasted one season there: it finished 18th in 2021-22 and dropped into the Tercera Federación. In that division it was fourth in 2022-23 and 2023-24 and fifth in 2024-25. In 2025 the club held a programme of events for its centenary. In May 2026 it won away at Artajonés to become champions of Group 15 of the Tercera Federación, which gave it direct promotion to the Segunda Federación.