Malaga's decade-long decline: From Champions League 'injustice' to second-tier survival

Ten years on from the brink of a European Cup semi-final, the Spanish club is now on the verge of slipping out of the professional leagues

Malaga's La Rosaleda Stadium used to host Champions League nights and still hosts Spain internationals but the club is far removed from those heady days and now faces relegation from the professional Show more

To this day, what happened in Dortmund on April 9, 2013 remains a painful memory for manager Manuel Pellegrini.

His Malaga side were 2-1 up against Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund and heading into the Champions League semi-finals when Dortmund’s two goals in added time were allowed to stand by referee Craig Thomson.

It was the first time a team had scored twice in injury time in the competition since Manchester United against Bayern Munich the infamous 1999 final. United’s goals were devastating to the Germans but weren’t disputed; Dortmund’s winning goal was.

“A referee’s decision cost us a place in the Champions League semi-finals,” Pellegrini recalled. “If there had been VAR the goal would never have been allowed. It was clear. We would have stayed in the competition.”

That Malaga were even in the quarter-finals for the first time was a shock. They had finished fourth in La Liga the previous season, but financial problems meant players were let go.

“There were times at Malaga when the players were not paid for months and then we had to lose six important ones,” explained Pellegrini, “but we still had an unbelievable team spirit. Isco was just starting his career, we had Martin Demichelis, Willy Cabellero, Joaquin. Great group.”

Ruud van Nistelrooy, Salomon Rondon, Santi Cazorla, Enzo Maresca, Juanmi and Nacho Monreal were among the 18 who left Malaga in 2012, bringing in €45 million. They had all arrived after the €36 million takeover by Qatar's Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser Al Thani in November 2010.

Al Thani made huge promises to a club which had never won a trophy. Malaga started to rise as big names arrived, lifting a team that had avoided relegation in 2010 to finish 11th and then fourth – and qualify for the Champions League.

Qatari interest in football investment was increasing and within a year of his Malaga takeover, the country was named hosts of the 2022 World Cup and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund had bought Paris Saint-Germain.

After Malaga’s early splurge of €85 million in three transfer windows – notable because the club had barely paid for a player in the previous decade – the bills stopped being paid: to the Spanish tax authorities and for those expensive new signings. In December 2012, Uefa, citing Financial Fair Play rules, announced Malaga would be banned from its competitions for the 2013-14 season.

Some of the players who had not been paid departed and were replaced with free transfers, including Javier Saviola, with only the loan of Roque Santa Cruz from Manchester City costing any money. He would become the top scorer.

Excellent players including Isco, Diego Lugano, Demichelis, Joaquin, Jeremy Toulalan, Julio Baptista, and Duda also remained and proved good enough to finish sixth in La Liga in 2012-13. Good enough also to qualify unbeaten top of a strong Champions League group with AC Milan, Zenit St Petersburg, and Anderlecht, and then eliminate Porto in the first knockout stage.

Borussia Dortmund awaited. Malaga drew 0-0 at home against Klopp’s side in the first leg. For the second, a huge choreograph filled Dortmund’s Yellow Wall featuring the Champions League trophy and a Dortmund fan with binoculars looking forward to it.

“We saw the choreo and that made us think ‘let’s do this’,” said Dortmund’s Brazilian defender Felipe Santana. “There was so much emotion, the fans didn’t stop, they were our fuel.”

Dortmund were stunned when Joaquin – long a Real Betis legend but then playing for Malaga – put the Spaniards ahead in the away leg. Away goals counted double, VAR was some time off. Robert Lewandowski equalised after 40 minutes before Malaga got a second from Eliseu after 62.

“Julio Baptista [the Malaga striker] was laughing at us,” recalled Felipe Santana, who played a key role in Dortmund's victory. “He was saying ‘It’s over! It’s over!'" It looked perfect for Pellegrini. Real Madrid, where he’d previously managed, would await in the semis.

And then disaster struck with Dortmund’s two injury time goals.

“I was in the stadium in Dortmund when the board went up with three minutes of additional time,” Malaga season ticket holder Christian Machowski told The National. “I said to my wife ‘if they score one they will score two’. Malaga totally lost their heads in injury time. The referee Craig Thomson is still persona non grata around here.”

Dortmund’s winning goalscorer, Santana, said: “Everything happened in 69 seconds. Everyone said ‘offside!’ but the referee didn’t give it. So, 3-2. It was the best goal of my career.” Santana didn’t sleep for two days after the game.

Pellegrini told officials after the game that there was no referee for the last 20 minutes. Few disputed it.

“I have never watched the goals since that day,” Machowski said. “I couldn’t put myself through it, even 10 years later.”

Santa Cruz said after the match: “We’re still trying to come to terms with what happened. We were four minutes away from the semis. There is huge disappointment in the dressing room. We had the tie in our hands.”

Al Thani shared his thoughts on Twitter after the game, writing: “I’m sorry to go out this way, injustice and racism.”

Malaga felt forces were conspiring against them for breaching Financial Fair Play. Al Thani’s mood has not softened. “The black day of football in the world”, tweeted Al Thani on an anniversary of the game. He demanded “justice”.

“We should have been in the semi-finals,” Pellegrini told this writer in 2021. “Instead, we arrived at Malaga airport at 3am and thousands of people came to see us.”

Thomson had hoped to referee at the 2014 World Cup but was omitted from the referees’ list. The Scottish FA’s chief executive later spoke in support of Thomson, saying the problems had been due to his assistants.

Malaga started to unravel. The team from Spain’s fifth biggest city worked through 18 managers in the nine years since Pellegrini left. Juande Ramos, Javi Gracia, and Pepe Mel were some of the bigger names discarded. Time has not been good to Malaga and they are now eight points from survival with eight games left in Spain’s second division.

“This will culminate in relegation to non-league football,” said Machowski. “It’s not just the fault of Al Thani who has not been in charge of running the club since 2020 but the total mismanagement over the last three years. Malaga should have been relegated last summer but got away with it. The club didn’t take action and here we are. A badly run club eventually ends up with a very bad team.”

The drop wasn’t immediate. While the spending was curtailed, they still managed to finished sixth, 11th, ninth, eighth and 11th in La Liga in the years which followed. Average crowds were a healthy 27,000 in the 30,000 capacity Rosaleda and they are still decent, despite relegation in 2018.

Malaga were the best supported team in Spain’s second tier last season and despite being even worse this term, average attendances have risen by 3,000 per game to 18,000.

Al Thani is no longer the club’s president, having been removed from the position by a Malaga judge nearly three years ago following an investigation into alleged improper management. An administrator was appointed in his place, initially for a six-month period but extended bi-annually ever since.

Fortunes went the other way for Klopp. In 2013, his side progressed and defeated Madrid in the semi-finals before losing to Bayern Munich in a Wembley final. Ten years on he has won the Champions League with Liverpool and reached two further finals.

Pellegrini, after managing Manchester City and West Ham, is back in Andalusia where he’s doing an excellent job with Real Betis.

“Going to Malaga was one of the best decisions of my life,” said Pellegrini. “The city is beautiful, the team played in Europe, the fans were fantastic. I had three happy years in Malaga. We brought important players. Old players, but top players.

“I even have a roundabout named after me in Malaga! A big roundabout near the stadium and I was very happy about this. I don’t know if I deserve it.”