Lleida CF in Lleida is facing liquidation after a suspected investor fraud and years of institutional instability. The club’s debt now stands at more than €5 million, and its future now depends on whether any rescue can be found before the insolvency deadline.
The crisis deepened after police arrested a man who had presented himself as an investor. According to the club, he had promised to cover €1.8 million in immediate debt and to guarantee the club’s finances for seven years with personal funds. After the arrest, acting president Marc Torres said: “There is no future.”
The club’s problems go back to January 2022, when businessman and former UE Lleida player Luis Pereira took over the presidency. His arrival followed a period of turmoil under the Esteve brothers, which had already led to a Guardia Civil investigation at the Camp d'Esports offices. Pereira’s tenure was marked by internal conflict, including a public argument and an assault on Vicente Javaloyes, then his right-hand man, according to Segre.
Relations with Lleida City Council, the Paeria, also remained strained. In January 2022, the municipal plenary voted to end the agreement for use of the Camp d'Esports stadium. Later, in August 2023, Pereira accused the council of discrimination after it rejected a sports city project. In March 2024, the club was forced to change its name from Lleida Esportiu to Lleida CF, its third name after Unió Esportiva Lleida.
The financial collapse became more severe in 2025. In March, Segre reported that players and staff had not been paid since January, with some foreign players struggling to cover daily expenses or return home. On 27 April 2025, Pereira said on X that he had been the victim of a multi-million euro fraud linked to investors from Dubai and a German company. He also referred to threats, blackmail and extortion. Without the promised money, the club released its squad and the Spanish Football Federation administratively relegated it to Tercera RFEF because of unpaid debts.
In the summer of 2025, Marc Torres led a last-minute creditors’ meeting in an effort to stop embargoes and direct income from season tickets and sponsorships towards day-to-day running costs. The club worked with a budget of €600,000 under coach Jordi Cortés, but finished bottom of the league and suffered a second straight relegation, this time to the Elit league. By then, the debt had reached nearly €5 million, including €1.7 million owed to the tax authorities and €2.3 million to social security. Supporters also launched the Lleida 1939 project as a fallback plan if the historic club is liquidated.
In May 2026, the club believed it had found a solution with a supposed French hotel investor holding a British passport. After irregularities were found in the documents, Torres alerted the Mossos d'Esquadra on 20 May. Police arrested the man at Torres’s office and found that the identity was false, with an arrest warrant from the Audiencia de Barcelona already in place. With Pereira absent from public view for months and no time left to secure new backing, Lleida CF now appears to have run out of options.
