San Roque de Lepe · History

Club Deportivo San Roque de Lepe was founded on 31 October 1956 at a meeting in the rooms of the Casino in Lepe, in the province of Huelva. The driving force was the priest José Arrayás Mora, who pushed for the merger of the teams that already played in the town. The mayor, César Barrios, chaired the founding committee. The first board was formed on 2 December 1956 with Diego Díaz Hernández as president, and Fernando Fernández Vázquez was the first coach. The club plays in yellow and black vertical stripes, which gives it the nickname «aurinegros».

Foundation and early years

San Roque made its official debut in the 1957-58 season in the Huelva provincial league. It won its first official match 2-1 away at San Juan del Puerto. That season it finished top and was promoted to Primera Regional. The Campo Municipal de Deportes had opened on 7 July 1957. The club played its home games there for more than half a century, starting with a 3-1 win over El Campillo. In 1966, after finishing second in Primera Regional, it won promotion to the Tercera División for the first time. It lasted only one year: in 1966-67 it finished bottom and returned to the regional leagues. A crisis followed that relegation and forced the club to rebuild.

Back in the national divisions

San Roque spent the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s in the Andalusian regional leagues. In 1987, after finishing second in Regional Preferente, it returned to the Tercera División. It established itself there with several top-half seasons and reached the Copa del Rey for the first time, where it went out in the fourth round to Orihuela. In 1992 it earned its first promotion to Segunda División B, the Spanish third tier at the time. It played three straight seasons at that level, from 1992 to 1995, and dropped back to the Tercera in 1995.

Relegation and rebuilding

The 1998-99 season ended with the team bottom of its Tercera group and another drop into the regional divisions. San Roque won the Regional Preferente in 2001 and returned to national football, but went down again in 2002. It took five seasons to climb out of the Andalusian leagues. In 2007, the club’s 50th anniversary, it finished second in Primera Andaluza and won its place back in the Tercera División.

Tercera champions and Copa Federación winners

In 2008-09 San Roque won its Tercera División group, its first league title at national level, and was promoted to Segunda División B. It finished eighth in its first season there. In spring 2010 it won the Copa Federación, beating Lorca Deportiva over two legs in the final. In 2011 the club left the Municipal and moved into the Estadio Ciudad de Lepe, which holds 3,512 spectators. It played four straight seasons in Segunda B, with fifth place in 2010-11 as its best finish, until it was relegated in 2013.

Between the third and fourth tiers

The team finished second in the Tercera in 2013-14 and returned to Segunda División B in 2014. That spell lasted two seasons, and the club went down again in 2016. In total, San Roque has played nine seasons in Segunda B. From 2016 to 2020 it stayed in the Andalusian Tercera División, usually in mid-table.

Segunda Federación

In May 2021 San Roque beat Xerez CD 2-1 and won promotion to the Segunda División RFEF, the newly created fourth tier of Spanish football. That season it was the highest-ranked club in the province of Huelva for the first time in its history. In the Segunda Federación it finished sixth in 2021-22 and seventh in 2022-23. On 13 November 2022 it hosted Getafe in the first round of the Copa del Rey, before a crowd of around 3,500 at the Ciudad de Lepe. It lost 3-2 after extra time. In 2023-24 it finished 16th, and in 2024 it was relegated to the Tercera Federación, where it was placed in Group X.