Welcome to…Lanzarote

The rabbit keepers on a lava-red island

Lanzarote is known for its lava, ochre-colored nature, and the Timanfaya National Park, but its football club is also exciting. After UD Las Palmas and CD Tenerife, UD Lanzarote can be considered the most important Canarian club, both for its sportive history and its representation of an entire island. Welcome to…Lanzarote.

A live-action picture of a match of Lanzarote in 2023. © La Voz.

A unique island

Like every Canary Island, Lanzarote has its unique elements, and most are related to lava. Thanks to the artist and politician César Manrique, lava is implemented in many aspects of the Lanzarotan street scene, while he also introduced a cap of three floors in all newly constructed buildings on the island. Combining this with the particular nature of Lanzarote, the island’s panorama is unmatched.

A panoramic view of Yaiza, considered one of the most beautiful Spanish towns. Its name has its origins in Guanche, the language of the homonymous native population of the Canary Islands. © Chmee2.

Of course, Lanzarote also has many beaches, attracting almost 3,000,000 tourists yearly. Moreover, it’s a popular second home for foreigners, particularly for those from colder European countries. Still, the island has managed to maintain its local culture, including a specific accent, traditional sports, and gastronomy.

A beach in Arrecife, the island’s capital. When the sky is clear, you can see Morocco from this beach, as the African continent is only one hundred kilometers east of Lanzarote. © Guías Masmar.

Football in Lanzarote

Football has been a popular sport at Lanzarote for over a century, but the island did not have a representative team for decades. A group of lanzaroteños wanted to change this at the end of the 1960s, especially because tourism was growing very fast, and the island’s economy grew at the same pace. This is why several clubs from Arrecife decided to unite forces in 1970 to create Unión Deportiva Lanzarote.

The kit evolution of Lanzarote. As decided during its foundation, red represents the lava for which Lanzarote is known, and blue the sea surrounding the island. © lafutbolteca.com

Exactly ten years after its creation, Lanzarote achieved its first promotion to the Tercera División, which established the club’s status as the island’s best team. The conejeros were able to finish in high places but could not yet dream about promotion to the Segunda División B. This only happened in 1999, which caused much euphoria on the island.

A starting XI in the first season of the glory era of Lanzarote. © Radio Marca.

Even though the rojillos got relegated directly, they returned one year later to the bronze division and managed to stay up for an incredible amount of nine seasons. The best season in this historic period was 2003-04, when Lanzarote ended as champions of its group of the Segunda B. Sadly, the reds did not go up to the second tier, as they lost too many matches in the all-deciding mini-competition. Curiously, Lanzarote’s coach during 2003-04 was José Luis Mendilibar, who won the Europa League with Sevilla in 2023.

An image of the match Athletic – Lanzarote, one of the many cup matches Lanzarote played in the 2000s. Besides Athletic, Lanzarote played against Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid, Sevilla, and Real Mallorca, only beating the latter. All those teams visited had to play at Lanzarote’s Ciudad Deportiva, which created many beautiful memories for the locals. © El País.

After Lanzarote’s relegation to the Tercera in 2010, the club would not return to the Segunda B – or at least, so far. Nevertheless, Lanzarote has played some impressive seasons in the fifth tier, for example by winning another championship. Moreover, the club has never lost its title of being the biggest club on the island.

Players of Lanzarote celebrating a goal in 2017. © Radio Marca.

Rivalries

As Lanzarote is the island’s most supported team, there’s not really a club that can compete. However, the team does have two (minor) rivalries. The first one is with CD Orientación Marítima, one of the founding teams of Lanzarote. Since that moment, the clubs have shared one stadium, but after Orientación Marítima’s decline in the 2010s, the first teams have not played a derby against each other.

The Ciudad Deportiva Lanzarote, one of the biggest Canarian stadiums with a capacity of 7,000. © Carrasco.

After some years without a rival on the island, a new Lanzarotan team reached the Tercera: US Yaiza. Even though Lanzarote and Yaiza are incomparable socially speaking, both teams have achieved similar results in the last years. In 2021-22, Yaiza even ended well above Lanzarote.

A derby between Yaiza and Lanzarote in 2022. © La Voz.

An honorable mention is for CD Teguise, the club that is historically the third team of the island behind Lanzarote and Orientación Marítima. Teguise played many seasons in the Tercera in the 2000s without ever coinciding with Lanzarote. Currently, Teguise is active in lower divisions.

The support

As Lanzarote is a notably big team, it’s more than logical that the team has some organized support. On the one hand, there’s the peña (a Spanish term for an organized supporters club) Trifulka, supporting the team since 2010. On the other hand, there’s British and Irish support, considering that Lanzarote is a popular second home for – primarily – Western Europeans. Curiously, a fan of the latter group, Ian Lane, became responsible for the kits of Lanzarote and even joined its board of directors.

Lanzarote does not only dispose over a loyal fanbase at home but also away, even though this often includes interisland flights. © Informa Canarias.

The future

Some internal struggles have held back Lanzarote in the last years. However, when looking at aspects like fanbase or history, Lanzarote deserves a place in the Segunda Federación. The club was very close to promotion, ending 2nd in the league last season, which gives many hope to the conejeros, even though there will be other strong teams in the Tercera of 2023-24. This was…Lanzarote.

Sarotín, the club’s mascot since 2009-10. It was a very straightforward choice to have a rabbit as a club mascot. As a matter of fact, Lanzarote’s inhabitants are called ‘conejeros’, which translates to ‘rabbit keepers’. In previous centuries, Lanzarotan merchants used to trade with rabbit skin, given the omnipresence of rabbits on the island. Now, not only the lanzaroteños are known by this nickname, but also the supporters of UD Lanzarote. © Crónicas de Lanzarote.

Sources

• Borchers, L. (2021). GOLAZO. Self-published.
• Borchers, L. (2022). CARA O CRUZ. Self-published.
• https://udlanzarote.com/historia/
• http://lafutbolteca.com/union-deportiva-lanzarote/
• https://mercancialanzarote.com/ (an English page, very recommendable if you want to learn more about the club)