A fascination that captures the attention of many followers of Spanish football is the unusual case of Logroñés—the city hosting not one, but two clubs bearing the same name across different eras.
The recurring question is why two clubs in Spain carry the Logroñés banner. This piece unpacks that history and clarifies how the situation unfolded over time, shaping a distinctive chapter in La Rioja’s football culture.
The roots go back to 2009, a pivotal year. The historic club CD Logroñés failed to appear for a Third Division match against Navarrete, triggering its withdrawal from competition amid a tangle of financial difficulties. In the wake of that crisis, a group of club members began gathering at gate 0 of the Las Gaunas Stadium, turning informal meetings into a formal project. Over time, those conversations crystallized into Sociedad Deportiva Logroñés, a team officially registered in the Preferente Riojana. Led by a cooperative of partners, the SD Logroñés pressed forward, earning promotion to the Segunda B with determined momentum despite financial and organizational hurdles.
Simultaneously, the organizational landscape of Spanish football was being reshaped by the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), and the modest tiers of the league system were undergoing restructuring. The SD Logroñés managed to navigate these changes and secured spots that allowed it to advance into the Primera RFEF in due course, continuing to pursue competitive success while keeping the club’s identity intact.
From CD Varea to UD Logroñés
In the same year, another club from Logroño, CD Varea, earned promotion to Segunda B. CD Varea had long been a recognized name in the city’s football scene, and its ascent created an opportunity for deeper competition in the region. A local entrepreneur, Félix Revuelta, emerged as a major shareholder of CD Varea and facilitated a structural transformation by converting the club to SAD status. This change set the stage for a name shift from CD Varea to UD Logroñés, with the explicit aim of occupying the place that the historic CD Logroñés had vacated. The rebranding reflected a strategic effort to preserve top-tier presence in the region’s football landscape while honoring the city’s sporting heritage.
Consequently, UD Logroñés began its campaign directly in Segunda B, positioning itself to become a direct rival to SD Logroñés. The 2011-2012 season witnessed the first renewal of the local derby between the two Logroñés sides, a confrontation that would carry into the 2012-2013 season in sophomore competitions. The second derby occurred in 2012-2013, following a season in which the two teams met in the Copa del Rey, with SD Logroñés edging UD Logroñés 2-1 in one of those early showdowns. Across these matches, both clubs maintained the iconic red and white colors, a visual link to the city’s former footballing mentor, CD Logroñés, and both continued to play their home games at the Las Gaunas stadium, reinforcing a shared heritage that nonetheless kept them as distinct entities.
Fans watched as the two clubs evolved, sharing a common shirt palette while pursuing separate paths in a league system that occasionally blurred in the public eye. The simultaneous presence of both SD Logroñés and UD Logroñés became a defining characteristic of La Rioja football during that period, illustrating how a city could sustain multiple competitive identities while honoring its past. Narratives of devotion, finance, and community leadership interwove, producing a story that remains a talking point for supporters, local media, and historians of the sport alike, often referenced in retrospective pieces and fans’ memories.