History
On the 27th February 1916, the charter of Alfonso XIII FBC was drafted in Palma – the first name of the team that later became Real Club Deportivo Mallorca. Weeks after its foundation, the board was formed by founder Adolfo Vázquez Humasqué and eight other football fans. On the 25th March, the club’s inaugral match took place at the Buenos Aires campo. An 8-0 drubbing at the hands of FC Barcelona. Shortly afterwards, the club acquired the Real (‘Royal’) prefix at the request of His Majesty the King.
Among the large number of friendly matches and tournaments organised by local clubs themselves, a general meeting held on 14th April saw the club elect its first president – Antonio Moner. And in the same month, King Alfonso XIII honoured the team with the Real Sociedad (‘Royal Society’) prefix – a name which then remained with the club until 1931 when it changed its name to Club Deportivo Mallorca.
In 1917, la Federación Catalana (‘the Catalan Federation’) admitted Real Sociedad Alfonso XIII to take part in the second league championship as an unofficial champion of the Balearic Islands. The team reached the final played in Barcelona against Palafrugell, winning 3-1 ensuring their first title.
Until the 1930s, the attentions of the Board were to increase support for the club and so resulted with several teams to come for games on the island. Those included RCD Espanyol, Real Murcia and several foreign teams such as Ajax (1923), Uruguay XI (1925), Colo-Colo (1927) and Meteor Prague (1930).
In the first sixteen years of the club’s existance, they played 421 matches, winning 240, drawing 76 and losing 105 with seven presidents coming and going.
The team ceased competing in anything other than local competitions after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. But they won every available title in that period.
Following the end of the Civil War, Mallorca were admitted to the Segunda División for the 1939/1940 season but found themselves relegated. They were back in the Segunda División for the 1944/1945 campagin, and the next season inaugurated their new 16,000 capacity stadium Fortí on 22nd September 1945. The next day, Mallorca beat Jerez 3-0 with Sanz scoring the first goal in the new ground.
Later in the season, the Board decided to change the name of Fortí to Estadio Lluís Sitjar, after the person who had been president of the club from 1943 to 1946.