SAN FERNANDO, Spain—Back in October, it was common knowledge that the final match of San Fernando C.D.’s season would be a funeral.
A sad, 90-minute procession remembering a relegation campaign—and potentially the demise of an 80-year-old football club.
On May 13, the Spanish club’s 2017–18 season did indeed come to an end under a warm Andalusian sun.
The Isleña and its fans, however, were not mourning: They were celebrating comfortable survival in Segunda B—the third tier of Spanish football—just six months after the club hit rock bottom.
Having forfeited its season opener and gone winless in August and September, San Fernando sat anchored to the bottom of the league table; players hadn’t been paid on time, and a toxic atmosphere hung over the Estadio Iberoamericano.
The situation was dire enough to warrant the club a rare appearance in MARCA, one of Spain’s national sports papers, which labeled the club as “on the edge of the abyss.”
José Herrera, the club’s 38-year-old manager, had steered similarly leaking ships previously at other lower-league stops.
