Formation: 1997
Stadium: Estadio Francisco Vilaplana Mariel, Ibi
Ground Capacity: 3,000
Shirt Colour: Red
Major Honours: 2012-13 Champions (Segunda Regional · 6); 2014-15 Champions (Regional Preferente · 4)
Position 2024/25: 18th in Tercera Federación – Grupo 6 (relegation)
Football in the town of Ibi has been represented since the 1950s, but the present-day club, Unión Deportiva Rayo Ibense, is regarded as a refoundation dating from 1997. The current side emerged a year after the apparent dissolution of an earlier team that bore the same name, continuing the town’s footballing tradition while marking the start of a new, uninterrupted era.
Beginning life in Group 9 of the Segunda Regional for the 1997/98 campaign, the reborn UD Rayo Ibense wasted no time in making its mark. The team finished runners-up in its debut season, earning promotion at the first attempt. That early momentum carried them into the Primera Regional, but two difficult years brought little reward, and by the close of the 1999/2000 season the club had slipped back into the Segunda Regional, facing once more the challenge of climbing the Valencian region’s football ladder.
Three difficult seasons at the foot of the regional pyramid – during which Rayo Ibense were shifted from Group 10 to Group 11 – eventually gave way to renewed progress. In 2002/03, the team secured a third-place finish that would ordinarily have left them just short of promotion. However, when champions Sporting CF Plaza de Argel withdrew, Rayo were handed the vacant promotion slot and climbed back into the Primera Regional, marking the start of another upward push.
Eight seasons in the Primera Regional followed, during which Rayo Ibense twice came agonisingly close to topping the table. The first near miss came in 2004/05, when the club finished runners-up, and the second in 2010/11, a campaign that ended in dramatic fashion. Level on points with neighbours CD Contestano, and with identical records of 20 wins, 6 draws and 4 defeats, the two sides could only be separated by their head-to-head results. A 0–0 draw in Ibi had been followed by a decisive 3–0 victory for Contestano in Cocentaina, handing them first place. This time, though, fortune smiled on the runners-up: Rayo’s second-place finish was enough to earn promotion to the Regional Preferente, then the highest tier of regional football in the Comunidad Valenciana.
The step up proved a stern challenge, and in 2011/12 UD Rayo Ibense struggled to adapt, finishing 16th and suffering an immediate relegation back to the Primera Regional. The setback, however, seemed only to galvanise the club. The following year brought their first league championship, as they stormed to the Group 6 title with just a single defeat in thirty matches, earning an instant return to the Regional Preferente. From there the momentum only grew. A solid fourth-place finish in 2013/14 set the stage for a triumphant 2014/15 campaign, in which Rayo claimed a second championship, finishing nine points clear of CD Almoradí at the top of Group 4. The title was followed by a dramatic playoff run: a 2–1 aggregate victory over UD Juventud-Barrio del Cristo in the semi-finals and another 2–1 triumph against CD Burriana in the final. With that, Rayo Ibense secured a historic promotion to the Tercera División, then the fourth tier of Spanish football, for the very first time.
Rayo Ibense made a solid start to life in the Tercera División, achieving a 10th-place finish in 2015/16, a position that remains the club’s highest ever at this level. Unfortunately, the following seasons proved more difficult, and by the end of 2018/19 the club faced relegation from Group 6. Finishing level on points (39) with CD Acero, Rayo were placed lower due to an unfavourable head-to-head record, as Acero had claimed two wins in the season’s direct encounters.
The 2019/20 season, cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic, offered Rayo Ibense a shot at an immediate return to the national leagues. The club finished third, earning a place in the promotion playoffs. A hard-fought semi-final victory over CD Buñol set up a tense final against Torrent CF, which ended 1–1 and was ultimately decided by penalties, with Rayo falling 5–3. Two seasons later, however, the club achieved playoff success. Finishing second in Group 5 of the Regional Preferente, Rayo advanced past CD Burriana with a 3–1 aggregate win in the semi-finals, then edged CF La Nucia “B” in the final: a 1–1 draw followed by a 3–1 victory on penalties. The triumph secured promotion to the newly formed Tercera Federación, established in 2020 as the fifth tier of the Spanish national league system.
Rayo Ibense’s return to the national system began steadily, with a 13th-place finish in 2022/23 marking their best performance at this new level. However, the following seasons proved increasingly challenging. The club slipped down the table year by year, culminating in a rock-bottom finish in 2024/25. Over 34 games, Rayo managed just 23 points from a possible 102, suffering 23 defeats and scoring only 23 goals, highlighting the struggles that the club faced at this tier.
We’ve Met Before
CD Jávea and the current incarnation of UD Rayo Ibense have never met before.
Between 1978 and 1990, the rojiblancos played a previous incarnation eight times and suffered their second heaviest defeat ever on May 13th 1979 when a run of five successive wins in the Primera Regional (Grupo Sud) came to an abrupt end at the hands of Rayo Ibense CF, who smashed 9 goals past Jávea.
Getting There