Club Deportivo Veracruz, simplified as CD Veracruz, and also known as Tiburones Rojos de Veracruz, was a Mexican professional football club based in Veracruz. Until 2019, it competed in Liga MX, the top division of Mexican football, and played its home matches at the Estadio Luis "Pirata" Fuente.
Domestically, CD Veracruz won two Liga MX titles and two Copa MX titles.
In December 2019, the FMF announced the disaffiliation of Veracruz from the Liga MX due to economic debts with first team players, its youth system, and the league.
History The club was founded around April 1943 under the name of Club Deportivo Veracruz after two clubs from the city state of Veracruz, Iberia de Córdoba and Veracruz Sporting Club, merged in order to join the Primera División de México. At the time, both clubs played in Liga Veracruzana, an amateur league in Veracruz. These two clubs had dominated the Liga Amateur de Veracruz, winning 21 titles combined. Each of these clubs had a short stay in the Primera Fuerza – a now defunct amateur football league in Mexico City – in the early 1920s but due to the distance, the clubs generally played in the local league which was less competitive. The club kept the Veracruz Sporting Club colors, red and black, which they used in the early part of its existence and a few years later would switch the black to white, keeping red as the club's main shirt color. In their first year the club played in Parque Deportivo Veracruzano sharing the field with baseball club Rojos del Águila de Veracruz. The club's nickname was given by Manuel Seyde who had also help merge the two clubs. The club had the honor of having been one of the first clubs to play in the professional league as well as having been the first club not from Mexico City to win the tournament. Among other records the club holds is most relegations (four times) including being relegated in 2008 by its hated rival Puebla who had just been promoted the year before. The club has played in the Liga de Ascenso de México ever since, coming close to promotion a couple of times but falling short each time.
The club played its first game in the 1943–44 Copa México tournament against Atlante who beat them 5–1. The club's first goal was scored by Manuel Rodríguez Angues, nicknamed as Manolín.
In their 1945–46 league Veracruz played 18 games with a streak of 14 wins and 4 draws. Veracruz also won their first title in that year. In the season 1947–48 they won their first Mexican Cup by beating Chivas 3–1. Soon Veracruz won their second title, in the 1949–50 season, with the most overwhelming victory in the history of Mexican football, beating Monterrey, 14–0.
Years later Veracruz acquired famous players such as René Higuita, Braulio Luna, Adolfo Ríos, Luis Hernández, Fernando Arce, Alfredo Tena and others. After being sold and moved to Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas and renamed Jaguares de Chiapas and later relegated to the Primera División 'A' de México, Veracruz came back in 2002 after being declared the Primera División 'A' champions and finished 11th place in the Summer of 2002. The Apertura 2004 season had been one of the best for Veracruz as they finished 1st place thanks to new signings such as Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Christian Giménez, Kléber Boas and others. Veracruz has had 59 managers so far, as of 2008. On the night of Friday April 25, 2008 at Luis "Pirata" Fuente stadium (home of the Tiburones Rojos de Veracruz), UNAM defeated Veracruz with a final score of 4–2, sending Veracruz to the Primera División 'A' league. Veracruz was officially relegated from the Primera División league on May 2, 2008 in the final match of the regular season against Tecos de la U.A.G. ending in a 0–0 draw.
First title
In the club's third year of existence in the 1945–46 tournament, the club went on to win 18 games with a record of 14 wins and 4 draws, managing to win 8 straight. The club scored 105 goals that year, leading the club in scoring was the Argentine Jorge Enrico followed by Raimundo González with 24. Luis de la Fuente was considered the club's best player because of his unique playing style.
It was on 2 June 1946, in the second to last round of the tournament in the Parque Asturias in Mexico City, home of Real Club España where the club won 2–3 and so were able to claim themselves champions for the first time. With goals scored by José Valdivia, Luis de la Fuente and Raimundo González, they ended a 26-year streak of the tournament being won by a club from Mexico City. That same year the club went on to lose the Campeón de Campeones title against Atlas.
First Copa México title In the 1947–48 Copa México tournament, with the departure of the club's best players (the Argentine Jorge Enrico along with other good players such as Lazcano and Pachuco Durán, and maybe the club's most important trainer, Palomini) the club still won its first Copa México. The final was played against Guadalajara with a final score of 3–1 under the management of the Spaniard Joaquín Urquiaga. That is the only cup to date the club has won, finishing runner-up 3 times: in 1949–50, 1967–68 and 1994–95.
Second title
In the 1949–50 tournament the club won its last Primera División de México title till date. The club started off that year with a rejuvenated squad led by Juan Luque de Serrallonga who had just come from a stay with the Mexico national team the year before. This year is also remembered because the club had its first goal scoring champion: the Peruvian Julio Ayllon, also known as El Negro, black promotional football players in Mexico being uncommon at that time; Julio went on to score 30 goals that year.
The end of a Golden Era The club welcomed the new decade with the start of the end of its golden age. The 1950–51 tournament became the first losing year due to economical problems the club faced under the ownership of Miguel Alemán Valdez and governor of the state Marco Antonio Muñoz.
The worst season came in the 1951–52 tournament after a long relegation fight that came down to the end against América; they lost and were relegated for the first time in history to the newly created Segunda División de México. That year the club finished with a record of 3 wins, 6 draws, and 13 losses allowing 54 goals and only scoring 22 for a total of 12 points, just 3 behind América (who kept the category and is one of two clubs that has never been relegated since the professionalization of the sport in Mexico).
In the 1952–53 tournament, playing in the Segunda División de México, the club finished the year just one point away from been promoted behind Toluca, who has played in the first division ever since. After that disappointing year almost all the players left the club following the 1953 cup tournament. As a result, the leagues decided to disband the club.
Return 1960s–1970s In 1961, thanks to a group of supporters, they established a patronage in which José Lajud Kuri was named president and so revived the club in order to take part in the 1961–62 Segunda División de México tournament. The first couple of years were mediocre and they didn't have any success.
In 1964 the club was presented with an opportunity to be promoted after the league decided to increase the number of clubs from 14 to 16. That year, the worst first division club, Nacional de Guadalajara, played a promotional playoff tournament against the Segunda División club Petroleros de Ciudad Madero. Poza Rica and Veracruz had finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th (not counting Cruz Azul who had earned an automatic promotion after winning the tournament). That tournament ended with Nacional de Guadalajara and Veracruz earning first and second with Petroleros de Ciudad Madero third and Poza Rica fourth. The club had returned to the first division after 12 years of bitter, bitter waiting.
In the 1964–65 Primera División tournament, the club played their first game on June 7, 1964, against Morelia in the city of Morelia, Michoacán in a 3–3 draw. The club's first goal since coming back was scored by Jesús Mercado. That year the club had a record of 10 wins, 8 draws, and 12 defeats; they scored 41 and allowed 44 for a total of 28 points and fishing 10 overall in the league. Their best game was played in the 8th round when they defeated Zacatepec 5–1. In the 1978–79 tournament, the club was relegated for the second time after losing 22 games allowing 83 goals and finishing last in the competition. One thing to mention is that the club had five different trainers that year. One week before their last game in the Primera División the club secured their relegation after losing, 5–2, against Club Universidad de Guadalajara in the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco. The last game the club played in that tournament was against Tigres de la UANL one June 3, 1979, at home where they had a draw of 1–1 and so ended their second stay in the Primera División while ending another decade.
1980s The club started the 1980s in the Segunda División de México. After the 1983–84 tournament, the club was sold and moved to the city of Mérida, Yucatán where it became Venados de Yucatán. This club lasted a couple years before folding in 1998.
After several years of not having a football club representing the state of Veracruz, various attempts were made in order revive the club. One such was to buy the Ángeles de Puebla franchise which at the time was on sale due to the lack of supporters. The club had been in the same city as Puebla who had won two league titles and 2 Copa México titles in the 1980s. But in 1989, a group of local businessmen along with funding by the governor of the city of Veracruz bought the newly promoted club Potros Neza which at the time was affiliated with Primera División club Atlante. The club played their first tournament game that same year and lost to Puebla under the management of Héctor Sanabria. That year the club finished 5th in group 4 with a total of 34 - nonetheless the club won over supporters by playing with a lot of heart. Players such as Davidovich, José Luís Marroquín, Castañon, Salcedo, Pascual Ramírez, Eduardo Rergis, Eduardo Moses, Omar Palma, and Jorge Comas stood out. That year is remembered as La Tiburomania because no matter where the club played it always had a great deal of support no matter the distance. The club return started a euphoria in the city in the 1989–90 tournament when the club had 19 straight sell-outs. It all came to a climax when the club played top club América in the Estadio Azteca where 50,000 Veracruz supporters poured into a stadium with a capacity of 114,000 and they set a record for the most supports attending an away game. That game ended in a 3–5 win for the home team in a controversial match refereed by Javier Castellanos.
That same year there was a four-way special tournament inviting Brazilian club Botafogo, Spanish club Real Madrid and local club UNAM. Botafogo ended up taking home the cup but the fans remember this tournament because the club beat Real Madrid, 4–2, with a goal by the Argentine Omar Palma.
1990s
The 1990s began with a group of players and a fan base which became known as La Tiburomaniam who cheer own fan favorite players Jorge Comas Adolfo Ríos, Joaquín Del Olmo, Octavio Becerril, Pascual Ramírez, José Luís González China under management of the Brazilian Edu. The club failed to qualify to the play-offs after a long battle for 2nd place in group 3 against Cruz Azul.
In the 1991–92 tournament, the club give its supporters something to cheer for after a bad start of the tournament which caused the existed of them club taker Angel Lopez who was replaced by Roberto Matosas. After the change of trainer the club had a much better tournament which qualified the club to a knockout play-off series against Correcaminos UAT which they won, 4–3, which they handed done since the club was reform in 1970. The club faced Necaxa in quarterfinals where they lost, 6–2.