Estadio José Benoliel

The ground is located in Ceuta. Estadio José Benoliel does not try to be a monument; it is a working piece of kit in a city where space is tight.

The surface is artificial turf. Around the perimeter, a high chain-link fence keeps the ball in, and behind it the rooftops of Ceuta rise up. The stands are low and concrete, filled with rows of black plastic seats that look tired but straight. The view over the far goal is short: you see the white stands at the other end and the sky above them, without a building blocking the horizon.

It opened in 1997 after the main city stadium was under repair. The work was quick, and the ground was named for José Alfón Benoliel, a former mayor who served in the mid-twentieth century. The capacity is small—roughly 1,000 people—and the layout means the crowd is close to the touchline. When the local youth finals were held here, the table goes out of the window and everyone remembers who held every card.

There is a side stand with a flat roof and advertising boards, while the opposite side is mostly open concrete. The lighting towers in the corners are plain, functional steel. Nothing is grand, and that is the point. The pitch is used for Regional Preferente matches and training sessions, where the game is often decided by who camps in the final third. The crowd roared them on during the youth tournaments, but the ground does not host large-scale events. It plays its part in the city, quietly, day after day.