The two results that had to be given in the Saturday section of the thirtieth ninth day of the league to produce the mathematical descent of Tenerife to First RFEF, ended up pushing the blue and white to the lower category. Actually, it was an outcome that was already taken for granted and was more than assumed by the insignificant margin of error that had left the Tenerife team. It was going to happen sooner rather than later.
Finally, the confirmation came with the triumph of Sporting against Deportivo (2-1) and that of Zaragoza over Cartagena (3-2 with a goal from the former Blanquiazul Dani Gómez in the 97 'minute). Logical markers, within what can be, in favor of two sets to which the representative can no longer advance and that placed their roof in the nineteenth place, insufficient to continue in Second.
Or what is the same, salvation on 24/25 will be above 47 points, whatever happens in the three days of course. Tenerife can only match that figure and, in conscious, he will not be able to escape the tail quartet, with three safe occupants, Cartagena, Racing de Ferrol and the Tenerife squad. To complete it, the clearest candidate is the Eldense of José Luis Oltra, which this Sunday receives the Malaga.
A 'new' category
Because of its denomination, the first RFEF will be a new category for a Tenerife that, from its promotion to second in 1953, has competed in four different steps, thirteen seasons in First, 48 in Second, eight in Second B and three in third division.
The first RFEF, a competition organized by the Royal Spanish Football Federation – LaLiga does not intervene – was created in the 2021/22 campaign and is equivalent to the disappeared second B. It consists of two groups in which 40 teams play, twenty in each. The two champions are rewarded with the direct ascent to Second, while the following four classifieds of each sector play two other tickets as a playoff with crosses between the teams of the two groups, at least in the first tie of the promotion. The Tenerife will be the first Canarian club participating in this category.
The ninth descent
For Tenerife it is the ninth decline in its almost 103 years of history. The farthest in time occurred on March 18, 1962 after a goalless draw against Racing de Santander in Rodríguez López. That matched caused his early farewell at 61/62, after spending only one course in the elite. “More than a soccer chronicle, this should be a necrological note full of gloomy dyes.” Thus began the day of the game, with three more to be played, against Betis (1-1), Sevilla (2-1 against) and Osasuna (3-1 in the heliodoro to sweeten the farewell).
Later, in April 1968, Tenerife drained third – from state level – for a deep restructuring of the second division that harmed the last eight classified of the two groups in which the 32 participating clubs were distributed. The Blue and Whites were eighth by the tail after losing on the last day in the field of a lifting descended by 1-0. The squad trained by Santiago Villar traveled to Valencia depending on herself, but she had everything against, including the result of Atlético Ceuta-memestalla (1-1), the worst possible for her interests. “Most players cried as authentic children,” this newspaper published to describe the image of the island costumes by some players who had surprised the decision of the host club to concentrate their team on the eve for the first time in the whole season, with the lift already descended.
A decade later, the representative followed that same path, but in a more conventional second division format-a only group of 20 teams-and to descend to Second B. A 4-1 in the Romareda in the penultimate day left the blue and white without the possibility of being saved. At the head of the Tisnerife cast, from beginning to end, Manuel Sanchís.
The next episode happened in League 85/86, also to return to the third step, to the bronze category. There was no going back after a 2-0 against in the Rayo field in May 1986. In a season initiated by Dragoljub Milosevic on the bench and finished by Domingo Rivero, Tenerife went down with Albacete, Aragon and Atlético Madrid.
That descent marked a turning point in the club's trajectory, since the successful stage led by Javier Pérez, with two consecutive promotions and a brilliant decade in the First Division, had a cycle that also had its end. He arrived in the 98/99 season. Al Tenerife, trained by Valentín Jorge Robi in the last six days after the options of Juan Manuel Lillo and Carlos Aimar failed, did not help defeating Valencia 3-2 at Rodríguez López on June 13, 1999, with local goals from Pier (2) and Makaay. A 3-0 from Villarreal to Racing that afternoon issued a sentence in the penultimate day. Thus ended the golden stage of the blue and white in First. The closure took place in the Helmántico with a duel between two descended clubs, Salamanca and Tenerife: a 1-2 decaffeinated with so many of myst and Emerson.
The history of the descents continued with another until later, that of the 01/02 campaign. After winning in the insular with Bruno Marioni's famous goal and complicating the permanence of UD Las Palmas, Tenerife received Athletic on the last date with very few chances of preventing the trip to Second. The team trained at that time by Javier Clemente was subject to other results and ended up yielding 2-3. A blackout in the Heliodoro caused the descent to be certified in the break, within a day with a unified schedule. The Mallorca victory against Valladolid condemned the Tenerife, who went down with the UD Las Palmas.
Uncertainty also remained until the 38th party of the First Division 09/10. The Tenerife of Oltra had hurried his options to get to Mestalla with hope of saving himself. He had to win and ended up losing for a goal from Alexis in the 89th minute. On May 16, 2010 he played his last game in the highest category.
He did it to sit on a slide that led to the team, without pause, to second B in a matter of one year. Tenerife, who had started the 2010/11 league with the illusion of playing the derby of the last date by accessing the field in the middle of a corridor formed by the yellow soccer players, as a tribute for a hypothetical ascent, lowered on May 15, 2011 a day after defeating Valladolid in the Heliodoro (3-2 with a double of child and some of Dubarbier). That Saturday gave way to a nefarious Sunday for the victory of another team involved in the fight for permanence, Nástic, about Real Betis (3-1). That marker was final, even with three meetings ahead: 1-2 in Albacete, 1-1 with the Ponferradina at home and a nightmare derby in Gran Canaria (1-0).
Names and numbers
The ninth descent of category occurs in the absence of four games for the end, with a balance of eight victories, eleven draws and 19 losses and with the passage through the bench of three coaches, Óscar Cano (5), Pepe Mel (14) and Álvaro Cervera (19 but will be 23).
Club message
Tenerife published, in X, a message addressed to the fans. “Today we fall and ask for forgiveness, but tomorrow we will get up. We will go back together, because tenerifeism is eternal.”
Cervera: “You have to continue competing as we have done so far”
Without knowing what was going to happen in Molinón and La Romareda, but assuming the reality of Tenerife, Álvaro Cervera insisted on the intention that the team “continues to compete” in the four games that they have left in this season. “We have to try to abstract and do what we owe, which is to play and try to win,” he said. The coach said that “such a coup – descent – affects a team that, in any case, will try to maintain the level of collective performance. «Individually it will affect us, but we will do our best so that it is not the same as a group to, at least, to compete in the nearest match. Then, later, I imagine that in the day to day we will talk about what will happen to the players, if they stay or leave, and that will be more difficult to control, ”he reflected. On the other hand, he advanced that he will make “available to the club” to give preference in the alignments to certain players, but always taking care of the nature of the competition. «What I will do will be to make myself available to the club. I will do what they think appropriate, ”he said referring to the possibility of more players who do count for the next project. «If they think there are soccer players who will not continue here, because the club decides or because they want to take another step, I will put myself at their orders. But we will also have to compete, ”said Cervera, especially thinking about the last two days, in which there is supposed to be something at stake for having as rivals teams fighting to go up, Real Oviedo and Almería.” We cannot distort the competition, “the coach recalled. Questioned by the fans' response, solidarity at all times, he said that “it is something that should be analyzed deeply.” “We play for a club, for an island. We have defended this situation in the best way we have been able to and that is what is being valued,” he said about the support of Tenerife.
