With the 2024/25 season now a few months old, let’s take a look at the state of play for clubs in Menorcan football.

Playing in Tercera Division (Tier 5): CE Mercadal, CD Migjorn

CE Mercadal can still lay claim to being the best Menorcan club at present, though it looks like being a season of establishing themselves as mid-table at best in the Balearics section of Tercera Division.

Tercera Division, now the fifth tier of the Spanish football pyramid, comprises of 18 Balearic based clubs. The top team at the end of the season earns promotion, with the teams from second to fifth partaking in the very complicated Tercera Division promotion play-offs system.

There is a second Menorcan team in the division, CD Migjorn, who made history by earning promotion for the first time as Menorcan champions last season.

They have had a difficult start to life in Tercera Division, winning just one of their nine games, and managing to score just four goals.

Their maiden win came on their last outing, a 3-0 win over Campos, while their only other point came in a home draw against Penya Independent in September.

Mercadal have fared slightly better, winning two and drawing two of their eight games. The two wins came back to back, including a 2-0 win over Migjorn in the “Menorca derby”.

Last season, Mercadal started slowly but enjoyed a good run in the early part of the year that moved them long away from relegation, and for a time had them dreaming of making a surge up the table.

What happened to CE Alaior?

In somewhat unfortunate circumstances, CE Alaior were demoted from Tercera Division at the end of last season due to promotion and relegations in the leagues above, meaning a space needed to be created in the Balearic division, and Alaior as the fourth bottom placed team from the previous season had to drop out.

The impact of that drop meant a big clear out at Alaior, with the coach and multiple players departing, and them now facing the challenge of earning promotion again from the Menorcan league.

The Menorca Regional League line-up for 2024/25

There are 10 teams lining up in the Menorca domestic competition for 2024/25, which doesn’t get underway until December 15th.

The traditional Menorca Regional Cup competition has been played since the beginning of the season, taking the form of a group format, before the top four progress. More details on that below.

The make-up of the league is made significant by the presence of a new name – CE Ciutadella taking to the field as a new club, made up of a merger between Atletic Ciutadella, UE Sami and the junior side Dosa CF.

Their city rivals Penya Ciutadella are included too, having themselves declined to be part of the merger, and it’s their second season back after they took a year out in 2022/23.

The Mahon-based trio of CD Menorca, UD Mahon and Sporting Mahon remain, and they are joined by CE Ferreries and CCE Sant Lluis.

CF Norteno and Atletico Villacarlos, who both spent seven seasons without running a senior team last decade, are both in again too.

How has the Menorca Cup been going?

The 10 teams are split in to two groups of five for the Menorca Cup, which then sees the top two in each group progress to a semi-final stage.

In Group A, CE Ferreries (6-0-0) are leading the way with six wins from six, including 4-1 wins over UD Mahon and CF Norteno.

Despite that defeat, UD Mahon (4-0-1) are currently second having won the four other games they’ve played to date.

CD Menorca (5-2-0) are stranded in mid-table with two wins from five, while the merger hasn’t yet resulted in improvements on the field in Ciutadella, with CE Ciutadella (0-1-4) bottom with a solitary point, earned in a 2-2 draw against CF Norteno (0-1-4), which is their only point too.

It’s tighter in Group B, CE Alaior leading the way with 13 points (4-1-1) ahead of Sporting Mahon (3-2-0) who boast a game in hand. Sporting Mahon are unbeaten and won impressively 4-1 away at Alaior.

Atletico Villacarlos are in mid-table with eight points (2-2-2), and Penya Ciutadella have earned three points, all from draws (0-3-2), to keep them off the bottom ahead of CCE Sant Lluis (1-0-5).

Sporting Mahon agonisingly miss out on Copa del Rey spot

Sporting Mahon got themselves within 90 minutes of becoming the first Menorcan club to play in the Copa del Rey for 14 years, after they triumped in the Copa Illes Balears.

After winning through the Menorcan phase late last season, they defeated Luchador and La Union to triumph and earn their place in the preliminary round of the Copa del Rey.

Unfortunately, they came up against a tough UE Vic side from Catalonia, who also play in the sixth tier, and were beaten 4-0.

Agonisingly, Vic went on to draw the mighty Atletico Madrid in the next round, and were beaten 2-0, with Argentina World Cup winner Julian Alvarez, formerly of Manchester City, scoring two late goals.

With the league season just around the corner, I will get the website back up and running with fixtures/results after a quiet few months. Emails and messages always welcome, via X/Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @MenorcaFootball – or via email goals@menorcafootball.com