Aah - the holidays. Sun, sea, beaches and... football of course! Like on Tenerife. There are quite some teams on the island. CD Tenerife obviously is the biggest and best known, but there is a lot more to be found. All the way down south of the island, CD Marino is doing its utmost to keep track of the neighbours in the north.
"Every village has its football team." Something which is definitely true in Belgium and The Netherlands, but this is not the case in other countries. Tenerife on the other hand can make use of that phrase. Or at least to some extent. Apart from the usual suspects like CD Tenerife, a true hardcore groundhopper will look for great alternatives. In the south there is the very charming CD Marino.
Without any doubt, CD Tenerife has been an example for other teams on the island. CD Marino was created in 1933 as Marino Futbol Club. Created by local fishermen from Los Cristianos, the team can proudly say it's the oldest club in the south of the island. But those first few years haven't been easy. Games were mostly played against neighbouring villages and CD Marino was not yet a member of an FA. Mainly due to communication and transportation challenges at that time. The Spanish war in the 30s didn't help either.
But after WWII, a better period started. The port was modernised and in 1947 the club became an official member of the Spanish FA. With a new name; Club Deportivo Marino. Ever since CD Marino was mainly active in the regional leagues on the island and it moved a couple of times to pitches nearby the beaches. In 1969, a last move happened, to the current Estadio Antonio Dominguez Alfonso. And as of 1975 some real successes would follow as well.
That year, Spanish football changed with the addition of the Tercera Division and CD Marino helped creating the Preferente Interinsular; a division in between the island regional leagues and the national divisions. At that time, CD Marino was playing the top regional league in Tenerife, but very quickly they promoted to the Preferente Interinsular - a division connecting all teams coming from the Canary Islands.
It wouldn't take long before national divisions welcomed CD Marino. That finally happened in 1980, when the team promoted to the Tercera Division. In the meantime that had become the fourth level after the Segunda Divison B was created. For eight years, CD Marino worked on the next steps. In 1988 they won their league and promoted to the third level, the earlier mentioned Segunda Division B.
But great years are usually followed by lean moments. In 1993, CD Marino went back to the Preferente Interinsular due to financial problems. Shortly after that they even went back to the regional leagues in Tenerife. But the story wasn't over yet. In 1998, they were up a level again and slowly but surely worked on their comeback in the national divisions.
It took until 2007, but finally CD Marino was back in the Tercera Division. Twice they even managed to get back to the Segunda Division B, but each time it only lasted for one season. Right now the team is still in the national divisions. But after Spain restructured their competition, CD Marino ended up in a different division. Everything as of Segunda Division B was rebranded. That became the Primera Division RFEF, the third level, for instance. CD Marino is currently playing the Tercera Division RFEF, the fifth national level.
They'll still have to fight to stay in the league, but it looks like they'll manage. A club like this (lately with some Belgian players from the lower leagues) in a stadium like this: it's only a matter of time before we find them higher in the leagues again. In the meantime, we have been able to witness the derby atmosphere against CD Tenerife B.
If you want to enjoy our articles in Dutch, you can read them here.
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