So I first read about them a couple of years back; someone on this forum posted a news story about them. Basically they were a small 3rd/4th tier club, from a small hamlet in the Basque region of Spain with a population of just 27,000. They'd rarely played above the third tier of Spanish football and we're largely seen as a feeder club for the other Basque teams such as Sociedad and Bilbao. In recent times they have had some top young players on loan from the other Basque teams for a short period of time, as a place for them to develop. David Silva is one who pops into my head. Xabi Alonso too I think? A couple of seasons ago, they got promoted to the 2nd tier of Spanish football, and then subsequently won that division too on a tiny budget. This gave them the opportunity to play in La Liga for the first ever time in their 75 year history. The article which was posted basically highlighted that they were required to raise funds of €2,000,000 (unsure as to why) or they would face demotion back to the 3rd tier. They managed to find sufficient funds to play their first ever top flight season in La Liga and survived (albeit due to Elche being demoted). They built on that last season finishing 14th, and are now in line for a Europa League qualification spot in just their 3rd top flight season. Incredible considering their average crowd is just 4,000!!!!! They're a club sandwiched between 2 much larger and historic football teams from big cities. Proof that a small budget, little history and an economical transfer policy can be the platform for success. Just thought that was a nice story for anyone who have doubts over our clubs transfer policy. Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
But surely the task for them in particular is harder. In comparison to crowd size, budget and stature, they're quite similar to a club like Fleetwood, Shrewsbury or Newport. Whilst Fleetwood for example are having their best ever season in league 1, the likelihood of them ever becoming an established Championship club is slim, let alone a challenger for the Europa League places in the PL. Eibar have a considerably less handsome budget than their neighbours Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao, but with a win tonight (they're 4-0 up against Granada at present) they'll be above one of them and 6 points behind the other. Some feat irrespective of whether there's less money in Spanish football in my opinion. Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
Nice story. The obvious question for me is whether the Spanish league has parachute payments like ours, which is undoubtedly the biggest hurdle facing us in reaching the Premier League.
They're an amazing story, teams seem to hate playing at their ground which is understandable if you've seen it
Two things. Isn't Villareal an even more amazing story? Their ground can house half the population of the town and they've been in the Champions League twice reaching the semi- final one year I think. The second thing is a bugbear of mine - why did you start the original post with the word "so" ?
Villareal is a great story too. I don't know too much about them as a club to be honest and have been following Eibar's progress for the last few years. The reason for the word so? I think it's a West Yorkshire thing that I've picked up, along with the phrase 'oh really' in response to absolutely anything. Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
Futbol Heaven call on Radio Basque - call from El Brian: Beeleeve-a you mee-a Jonathan, teams like Eibar can't compete with giant clubs like mine [insert Bilbao UNITED or Sociedad UNITED]. Teams like that have NO RIGHT being there with these small crowds of around four or five thousand. We get over TWENTY THOUSAND every week you know!!
No parachute payments in La Liga. B teams can be promoted but not into the same league as the first team. If the first team get relegated into the same league then the B team has to be relegated as well. Say if Seville were to get relegated from La Liga then Seville B would have to drop out of Secundo into Secundo B. Very unlikely to happen though.
I think Villarreal were backed a lot financially, small team & ground but more of a Bournemouth than an Eibar type
