C.D. Veracruz

Did You Know?

• The club's biggest league win was 14–0 against Monterrey in the 1949–50 season.
• The club was founded around April 1943 after a merger between Iberia de Córdoba and Veracruz Sporting Club, which had combined to win 21 amateur league titles.

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 in the early 1920s.

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 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, 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.

2020 reestablishment of reserves

In 2020, the former reserve team Atlético Veracruz was reestablished to play in the Liga de Balompié Mexicano. On February 10, 2021, the club announced its retirement from the LBM to seek integration into the FMF, aiming to join the Liga de Expansión MX for the 2021–22 season, later redirecting to the Liga Premier de México. On May 23, 2022, the club stated it had paid all debts and opened a lawsuit against the FMF for wrongful disaffiliation, seeking return to Liga MX.