A team calledCompostela Foot-ball Club was founded in 1928, ceasing to exist in 1946. On 26 June 1962 a new team was created calledSociedad Recreativa Compostela, and on 28 October 1962 the newly-formed SR Compostela merged with another team,Club Arenal, changing names toSociedad Deportiva Compostela.[1] The 1970s saw the club change levels. The team played in the Tercera División, in the Regional category and in the new Segunda División B.[2] Its first promotion to a semi-national stage occurred in 1977, with a promotion toSegunda División B (Group 1), which lasted just one season;Compos promoted again in 1980, this time lasting six years.
Relegation in 1986 was compounded by off-field controversy surrounding the actions of then president Francisco Steppe. He resigned amid allegations of receipt of payments to throw a game againstPontevedra CF, which would assure the opposition avoided relegation. The late 1980s saw a significant restructuring of the club both at board and management levels and, in 1990, Compostela regained third-level status.
The following campaign was to prove the club's most successful to date. On 23 June 1991, a capacity crowd of 8,000 at theEstadio Municipal Santa Isabel, saw goals from Juanito and Ochoa (two) clinch a 3–1 victory in the final play-off match againstCD Badajoz, for a first-everSegunda División visit.
After four seasons at the top, Compostela was relegated after losing a relegation play-off match toVillarreal CF on theaway goals rule, despite playing overall attractive football. The club was also about to start a downward spiral; after a relegation to the third level in2001 the team returned the following year but, inthe following campaign, played to a backdrop of off-field distractions, with the players and staff going unpaid for months – a final ninth place was not enough to prevent another relegation, as the club failed to meet the 31 July deadline to settle all wage debts.[4]
In the 2001–02 season economic problems arose. However, the squad withLuis Ángel Duque as coach managed to achieve promotion to the Segunda División.[5] Off-field problems continued in 2003–04, with the pinnacle being the players, who had not been paid in several months, refusing to appear for a fixture atUB Conquense, with the subsequent loss of three points. At the season's close, after the actual relegation, Compostela dropped further to theGalician Regional Preferente (north) after failing again to meet the financial deadline. They played there for two seasons, and folded after the 2005–06 season, when a judge dissolved the institution in the summer of 2006, and auctioned all the club's properties, including the brand name, the trophies and the team's spot in the league. Finally, 26 January 2011, after everything was sold out, the court published the legal liquidation of the entity.[6]
Compostela playing againstLugo on 22 November 2009.
Previously to SD Compostela's liquidation in 2006, a new club was created on 1 June 2004 with the nameSD Campus Stellae,[7] with José Luís Balboa as president. They entered competition in the 2005–06 season at the group 11 of theGalicia Terceira Autonómica league, where he finishes in 11th position (out of 18 teams). The following season, 2006–07, they played in group 12 of the same division, and finished third out of 14 teams.
In 2006, a former president of the dissolvedSD Compostela, José María Caneda, bought the commercial nameSociedad Deportiva Compostela, and became president of the SD Campus Stellae, changing the team's name at the beginning of the 2007–08 season to the former club's brand.
In the 2007–08 season, the new club won its Preferente league and returned toTercera. In the following campaign, after finishing first in its group, the team beatAtlético Monzón with a 4–2 aggregate (3–0, 1–2) and won a second consecutive promotion. However, this would be a short-lived return, withrelegation befalling at the season's end, immediately followed by another one due to overwhelming financial problems. Longtime president José María Caneda left the club.[8][9]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Compostela played their first season atEstadio da Residencia da Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, whilst work was completed on their first permanent ground,Estadio Municipal de Santa Isabel; on 22 September 1963, it played the first match at the new stadium. It was a basic enclosure and lacked a covered stand until 1969, when a tribune was erected and floodlights installed at a cost of 1 millionpesetas. Compostela continued to use the ground for first team fixtures until the end of the 1993 season. The reserve team, Compostela B, played on atSanta Isabel until early 2003, when the ground was finally demolished and replaced with a municipal sports centre that bore the same name.
Work started on theMultiusos de San Lázaro in 1991. Situated in the eastern suburb of San Lázaro, it was a multi-purpose arena, used primarily for the football matches of its two resident clubs, Compostela andSD Ciudad de Santiago. Oval in shape and with a terracotta-coloured roof on the west side to incorporate the directors' seating and press facilities on a second tier, the pitch was surrounded by a 400m athletics track, relatively uncommon in Spanish stadiums.
