El Prat de Llobregat is a modest, working class town that's wedged between Barcelona International Airport and the Rio Llobregat. Tucked away in one of its suburbs, in the shadow of a huge hypermarket is the Estadi Sagnier, home to the equally modest Associació Esportiva Prat. I say modest with all good grace, because prior to this season, AE Prat had achieved, well... not a lot.
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| AE Prat's rudimentary Fondo d'en Peixo
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Founded in 1945, the club can not even claim to be the town's most famous football team. That honour belongs to Union Deportiva Prat, an amalgam of CD Prat & CD Internacional that won the Amatuer Championship of Catalunya in 1939. Home for much of AE Prat's existence was the Fondo d'en Peixo, a very basic enclosure, close to the town's railway station. AE Prat first emerged from the Catalan regional leagues in 1984 scrambling together three mediocre seasons before dropping back to the regionals, where they would stay until 2002. This past decade has seen the club spend seven seasons in the Tercera with ever improving results. The club made the play-offs for Segunda B for the first time at the end off the 2009-10 season, but lost 0-2 on aggregate to Peña Sport. AE Prat won it's first ever Tercera title in May 2012 and then beat Atlético Sanluqueño to earn a place in the third tier. A creditable 12th place finish followed, but relegation back to the Tercera could not be avoided in May 2014.
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| The equally rudimentary Estadi Sagnier |
The upturn in form has coincided with a move away from the Fondo d'en Peixo, to the simple, but functional Estadi Sagnier. It has a short raised cantilevered stand on the west side of the enclosure and a narrow 40 metre terrace on the opposite east side. With two narrow strips of hard standing behind the goal, this municipal stadium has a capacity 1000.
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| Room on top for a few more. The main stand at Estadi Sagnier |
Labels: Barcelona, Catalunya, Tercera or Below
