Cieza

La Arboleja sits on the edge of Cieza, a municipal ground that holds 5,500.

The red and black shirts have been worn there under three separate incarnations of the same club: founded in 1923, refounded in 1952, and again in 1969.

The nickname, Los Esparteros, comes from the esparto weaving that occupied the town long before anyone in it played organised football.

Twice Cieza have climbed as high as Segunda B, and both times the stay lasted a single season. The 1986–87 Tercera División title took them up for the first time; they finished 20th and came straight back down. Six years later they did it again, won the Tercera in 1992–93, went up, finished 19th and returned.

David Karanka arrived in 2010, at the end of a career that had taken in Athletic Bilbao, where he came through, plus spells with Murcia and Sporting in the top two divisions. He played out three seasons at La Arboleja before finishing there in 2013.

Last season brought the club its widest audience in years. In the 2025–26 Copa del Rey, Cieza beat Córdoba 1–0 in the first round, then went out to Levante in the second by the same scoreline — 90 minutes in which an amateur side from Murcia gave nothing away against a Primera club.

The fixtures that matter most are closer to home: Yeclano Deportivo, Águilas, Deportiva Minera, La Unión. Cieza now play in Group 3 of the Segunda Federación, and the ground fills for those afternoons in a way it does not for much else.