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CD
Javea play in the Valencian Regional Preferente League, a regional
competition which sits at Level 5 of a loose Spanish League 'pyramid
system'. Like the Third Division, these premier regional leagues, of which
there are more than thirty spread across the country, are administered by the
football federations of each of the 17 autonomous communities of
Spain; in the case of Valencia, the league is administered by the
Federación
de Fútbol de la Comunidad Valenciana (FFCV).
The
Valencian Regional Preferente League consists of 72 teams spread
across four regional groups; only Andalucía can boast as big a regional
competition. Although the exact composition of each group can vary
from season to season, according to the geographical location of
the teams promoted or relegated to the level at the
end of the previous season, each 'mini-league' broadly covers the
following areas: Group 1 covers the northern province of Castellon, Group 2
covers the northern part of the province of Valencia with Group
3 covering the southern part, whilst Group 4 caters for clubs in
the province of Alicante, the 'Costa Blanca League'. Clubs located
on the borders between the provinces can find themselves swapping
between groups according to that season's composition of the league
as a whole and CD Javea have occasionally switched between
Group 3 and Group 4. As an example, the rojiblancos switched to
Group III for the 2008-09 season because too many Alicante-based
teams were relegated from the Third Division and thus Group 4 was
top-heavy; UD Benissa, promoted from the Regional Primera League
also found themselves playing in the Valencian group. Both have
been switched back to Group IV for the 2009/10 season.
Promotion
is decided by the lottery of a play-off competition at the end of
the season featuring the top three clubs in each of the four
groups. A draw is made at the headquarters of the FFCV in Valencia
and the three ultimate winners are promoted to the Third Division
- Group 6. The format of the play-offs occasionally changes;
recently it has been a simple two-legged knock-out competition
consisting of three semi-finals and three finals, the winners of
which are promoted. As recently as 2005 the play-offs consisted
of three 'mini-leagues' of four teams each who played a round-robin
series of games with the winner of each group winning promotion.
Most
teams are semi-professional with the occasional 'fallen giant' making
up the small fully professional quota. In the case of CD Javea,
the first team squad are paid a nominal sum agreed of an individual
basis by both parties at the beginning of each season. At this
level of the game in Spain, individuals tend to sign contracts on
a short-term basis and you will rarely find a player commit himself
by written contract to a club for longer than one season. There
are plenty of 'journey-men' footballers at this level and there are many examples of players featuring for, say, five
clubs in five years. That said, there can be a certain degree of
loyalty and it is not unknown for players to commit themselves to
their home-town club for several seasons.
I
often get asked about the standard of football at this level in
Spain. On paper, the Regional Preferente equates to the Football
Conference in England, just outside the Football League. In reality,
the standard probably compares to the Southern League - at best
- but this is, after all, essentially semi-professional
non-league football. Unfortunately anyone who arrives at the Municipal Stadium
in Javea expecting a Premier League standard football is going to be
sorely disappointed!
Team
Location 2009-10 Season
View Regional Preferente Group IV 2009/10 in a larger map
Click
on the player symbols to pull up details of the club
and get directions to the ground. You can zoom in
using the [+] and [-] controls in the top-left corner
of the map. You can change from MAP to SATELLITE
image by pressing the [Sat] button in the top-right
corner of the map. This is a good option for identifying
the actual location of the stadium. (I've tried to
get as close as possible to the stadium location but,
seeing as we're quite literally in new territory this
season, there may be some degree of inaccuracy in
the actual and precise position! However I shall
endeavour to keep updating as and when I receive
up-to-date information!)
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