CD Jávea: Become our 12th man this Sunday

Sunday 23rd April 2023
Mike Smith

CD JÁVEA has issued a call to arms to the people of the town to come out and fill the stand for this Sunday’s vital home match against CD Olímpic de Xàbia, kick-off 6.00pm. Whilst promotion hopes fizzled out almost as soon as the season began, the club’s main objective is to finish in the top eight and claim a place in the inaugural Lliga Comunitat FFCV next season, a new tier created by the regional football authorities.

CD Jávea currently plays in Group III of the FFCV Regional Preferente, step 6 in the Spanish football pyramid. In October 2022, the clubs of this level voted to create a new regional tier to be known as the Lliga Comunitat, consisting of two groups divided on a geographic basis, which will become the highest regional level in the Comunidad Valenciana and the feeder into the Tercera División. This will become the new step 6 in the region.

In order to form the two groups of this new division, it was agreed that those teams which finished in the top eight in each of the four groups of the Regional Preferente – less those four teams who win promotion to the Tercera División through the play-offs – plus the four teams relegated from the Tercera División would create them.

Those who finished outside of the top eight would create become the four-group Primera FFCV (step 7) – there will be no relegation this season – and the divisions below would be reorganised into the Segona FFCV (step 8) and the Tercera FFCV (step 9).

After Saturday’s results, CD Jávea currently sit in 11th spot, one point adrift on the top eight. It is a position that looked highly unlikely at the end of the first half of the season when the club sat in 17th position with just three wins from 17 games, only 11 goals scored and the worst goal difference in the league. With the club failing to play any decent football, head coach Juan Signes Carlos did the only thing he could do and resigned.

In stepped Julio Ivorra, a local lad who lived and breathed CD Jávea. Having come up through the ranks as a player and then again as a coach, he knew the club inside out. Yet it was still a surprising decision for the board to make. His first game in charge was against the runaway leaders Ontinyent 1931 CF; Jávea lost 2-0 yet there was a feeling that the players were running out with a little more confidence.

Twelve games later, and despite a long injury list, seven wins and three draws have lifted the club back towards the top half of the table and the ‘Julio Revolution’ has seen the squad playing football again and it sits just one point outside of the top eight going into the home game against CD Olímpic de Xàtiva, currently sitting in fourth spot but six points adrift of the top three and a play-off spot for promotion.

Speaking to Xàbiaaldía.com, the head coach said that, for the first time, he has a full squad to pick from and called on the fans to come out and fill the stand to play their part in this vital match. “It will be difficult because we are playing against a great team … but we are grateful to our fans for the support over the past few months, they have come out in numbers and that is appreciated. There is a fantastic link between the team and the fans now and that has been a fundamental part in the fact that we are now so close to the top eight, something that was unthinkable a few weeks ago”.

CD Olímpic de Xàtiva, a traditional regional power house, currently sit in fourth spot but would probably have been expecting to be claiming a top three spot for promotion back to the Third Division at the first attempt after dropping down at the end of last season. However, with one of the smallest squads in the league, things have not quite gone their way whilst the surprise package of the season, L’Olleria CF, look more likely to claim a play-off spot for promotion to the Third Division for the first time in 34 years.

Perhaps in response to the relatively disappointing position, the board of directors headed by the Indian investment group Sudeva, sacked coach Xavi Candel earlier in the week and it looks to be a messy divorce after Candel responded that he was owed pay since last December.

Former Muro CF head coach Marcos Camacho has been brought in to overcome a six point deficit and claim that play-off spot.