Mensajero – Tenisca is known as ‘Spain’s most violent derby’
The most intense Canarian derby is Las Palmas – Tenerife, but there is no doubt that Mensajero – Tenisca comes second. The climax of the rivalry arrived in 1983 when the most violent game in Spanish football history was played. However, the derby is more than that, as both teams seem to split La Palma in two. This is…the clash of La Palma.
A calm Canarian island
La Palma is the most northwestern island of the Canarian archipelago and is one of the islands without mass tourism. Instead, most tourists visit La Palma for its hiking routes and prefer ecotourism. The green island, with way fewer inhabitants than islands like Gran Canaria and Tenerife, is also known for its banana and wine production.
However, La Palma made the 2021 news headlines for something else. The Cumbre Vieja, a volcanic ridge in the south of the island, erupted and destroyed many buildings and plantations, after which 7,000 persons had to be evacuated. It was one of the most impactful tragedies in the Canary Islands in the 21st century.
Mensajero
Historically, the biggest club in La Palma is Club Deportivo Mensajero. Founded in the island capital of Santa Cruz de La Palma, Mensajero’s roots trace back to the 1920s, when the club started to play in regional amateur divisions. They would not leave these leagues until 1981, when the rojinegros made their debut in the Tercera División.
This promotion seemed to give Mensa a boost, as the squad would not play many seasons in the Regional Preferente anymore. Instead, the plumas rojas managed to climb to the Segunda División B in 1992 and played 10 consecutive seasons in the third division. This established Mensajero as the best club from La Palma.
After the relegation, Mensajero arrived in a dip but relived another ‘golden era’ in recent years, achieving promotions to the Segunda B/Segunda Federación in 2015 and 2021. For a long time, los del Barranco de los Dolores were the only ones from La Palma who reached this division, but this changed after Atlético Paso’s debut in the category in 2022.
Tenisca
Compared to Mensajero, Tenisca has a somewhat different history, even though the club was also born in the 1920s, in 1922, to be precise. The club decided to opt for the name Sociedad Deportiva Tenisca as a tribute to Princess Tenisca of the Benahoaritans, the people that ruled over La Palma before the arrival of the Spaniards. The club’s history would follow a similar path to Mensajero’s until the 1970s when Tenisca became the first La Palma team to achieve promotion to the Tercera División.
1979-80 meant the first season in the Tercera División for los de la Acera Ancha, in which they were barely able to stay up. In the following years, Tenisca played some playoffs for promotion to the Segunda B, which were followed by years in which the club battled against relegation. These dynamics took turns without Tenisca actually reaching promotion or relegation, accumulating dozens of seasons in the Tercera División.
Tenisca’s streak came to an end in 2022 when the merengues suffered relegation to the Preferente. The club played 42 consecutive seasons in the fourth tier, a national record. Moreover, no one else but the Canarian side can say having been present in all editions of the previous format of the Tercera División, looking not only at Canarian teams but at teams from all parts of Spain.
A unique rivalry
As Mensajero and Tenisca have been around since more than a century ago, they have always been the most popular teams in La Palma. Due to the lack of other strong La Palma teams and the high number of league matches between the two squads, Mensajero and Tenisca are arch-rivals. On La Palma, your favorite color is either red or white.
The rivalry reached its culmination in 1983 when Mensajero and Tenisca played a match in the Tercera División: 1-1. The scoreboard wasn’t spectacular, but the incidents were. The players played very toughly, and the game ended with a record number of matches suspended divided over all players and staff: 48. The referee was insulted and beaten up, the linesman underwent the same, some players tackled adversaries without control, and one player refused to leave the pitch after having received a red card. Moreover, the referee saw how hundreds of supporters invaded the field after he had blown the final whistle, after which the National Police had to intervene. Players and staff off Mensajero and Tenisca, as well as the clubs themselves, received high fines for all the crimes in ‘the most violent football match in Spanish history’. As the main referee later stated: ‘Really, I should have sent off almost all players, but then I would not have been able to leave the pitch alive.’ Later, it was discovered that many supporters had bet all their savings on this match, which, in addition to the deep-rooted rivalry between the teams, was enough to unleash one of the black pages of Spanish football.
The future
Even though the derbis palmeros have never been as intense as in the 1980s, the rivalry is still very much alive. However, in 2023-24, Mensajero is playing in the Segunda Federación, while Tenisca competes in the Preferente: a difference of two tiers. It will be the first season without a La Palma team in the Tercera División since Tenisca made its debut in the 1970s. Many palmeros would like to see the derby returning quickly, even though this applies more to the whites than to the red-blacks. This was…the clash of La Palma.
Sources
- Borchers, L. (2021). GOLAZO. Self-published.
- Borchers, L. (2022). CARA O CRUZ. Self-published.
- https://www.cdmensajero.es/elclub/historia/
- http://lafutbolteca.com/club-deportivo-mensajero/
- https://sdtenisca.blogspot.com/2012/04/archivo-el-dia-que-las-penas-apostaron.html
- https://elpais.com/diario/1983/10/06/deportes/434242806_850215.html
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7U3Cq-wlgM&pp=ygUSbWVuc2FqZXJvIHRlbmlzc2Nh
Modest Spanish Football 
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