Whilst the town of Santa Coloma de Gramenet can trace its origins back to prehistoric times, it was the industrialisation in the 19th century which brought about its first significant growth. At the turn of the 20th century, nearby Barcelona and its satellite towns were beginning to adopt the game of football, but it would take until the 1920s for the first serious attempts to establish a football club to occur in the town. Even then, it would take the post-Civil War rapid urbanisation of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area to get things really moving on the football front in Santa Coloma de Gramenet.
Unión Deportiva Atlético Gramenet was formed in August 1945, with its name and colours paying homage to three clubs that represented the town in the 1920s: FC Gramenet, UD Colomense, and CF Baleares. Home was the Camp de Fondo, an enclosure that had opened in 1929 and was used by UE Colomenca until the start of the Civil War. It would take another decade for UDA Gramenet to reach the Tercera, and over the next 15 years, the club flitted between the Tercera and the Catalan Primera. The Seventies saw a decline in the club’s fortunes, and between 1970 and 1986, Gramenet spent only two seasons in the Tercera. In the 1986-87 season, the club returned to the Tercera, and after a decidedly shaky first season, when they finished 15th, it began to establish itself, in part thanks to the financial support of club sponsor Ferrolán, a local building materials supplier.
After winning the regional Tercera in 1991-92 but failing in the playoffs, UDA Gramenet won promotion to Segunda B at the end of the 1992-93 season. After a second-place finish in the league, the club entered the playoffs, where they overcame Pinoso CF, CD Mallorca Atlético and Agrupación Mar Menor. Their first season in Segunda B was also the last campaign in which they used their cramped Camp del Fondo home, but what a send-off the old stadium was given. Despite being one of the favourites for the drop, UDA Gramenet confounded all and sundry and won the Group 3 Segunda B title by a whopping ten points. In the playoffs for La Segunda, they were pitched against CD Ourense, Real Jaén and Sestao SC, but finished last in the group. UDA Gramenet’s final match at the Camp del Fondo took place on 5 June 1994, when they hosted Sestao SC in the playoffs, losing 0-1. Failure to progress via the playoffs would be something that UDA Gramenet would have to get used to in the coming seasons.
At the start of the 1994-95 season, the club moved to the new municipal ground, just south of Santa Coloma de Gramenet, and on the east bank of the Rio Besos. The official title of the stadium is the rather bland Nou Camp Municipal de Futbol, but it was soon shortened to the name of the district, Can Peixauet. UDA Gramenet’s consistency in the league continued with a second-place finish. In the playoffs, UDA Gramenet finished third in the group behind Deportivo Alavés and UD Las Palmas, but ahead of Real Jaén CF. In 1995, the club merged with local team CD Milán and the club’s official, rather lengthy title became Unión Deportiva Atlético Gramenet Milán. A third visit to the end-of-season playoffs was secured at the end of the 1996-97 season, and whilst it was their best performance to date, a second-place finish behind Xerez CD, it was not good enough for promotion.
UDA Gramenet’s next visit to the playoffs came at the end of the 1999-00 season, after finishing in third place in the league. The playoff group featured Real Jaén CF, Gimnástica Torrelavega and CD Ourense, and all four clubs entered the final set of matches with a chance of promotion. However, a 3-1 defeat in Torrelavega saw Real Jaén CF promoted. A second Segunda B title was secured in 2000-01, but five defeats and a draw saw the club finish bottom of the playoff group behind Xerez CD, Cultural Leonesa and CD Toledo. In the 2002-03 season, UDA Gramenet scraped into the playoffs by securing fourth place on the final day of the regular season. Ironically, their weakest performance in qualifying for the playoffs brought about their strongest showing. Grouped with Málaga B, Real Unión Club de Irún and UD Lanzarote, UDA Gramenet entered the final set of matches in first place… but you’ve guessed it, a 1-1 draw with Real Unión and a 3-0 win by Málaga B over Lanzarote saw the Andalucians promoted at UDA Gramenet’s expense.
Away from the league, UDA Gramenet had their best run in the Copa del Rey in 2004-05, beating FC Barcelona, Levante UD and UE Lleida to reach the quarter-finals. They finally fell to Real Betis 5-6 on aggregate. The latest visit to the playoffs occurred at the end of the 2005-06 season, but with the new knock-out format, UD Salamanca quickly put UDA Gramenet out of their misery with a 3-6 aggregate victory. Quality players and the money dried up after that, and the club dropped back to the Tercera at the end of the 2010-11 season. UDA Gramenet’s woes continued, and three successive relegations saw the club start the 2016-17 season in the Tercera Catalana (Level 7). The club now play a mile or so to the south of Can Peixauet in Sant Adrià de Besos, competing in the Quarta Catalana, the tenth tier of the Spanish football pyramid.
The Nou Camp Municipal de Santa Coloma, or Can Peixauet, staged its first official match on 3 September 1994 when UDA Gramenet beat CE Premià 2-0. Its dominant feature is a 2,400-seat cantilevered stand on the east side of the complex. In front of the stand and running around the pitch was a continuous ring of three rows of blue seats, but they were removed following UDA Gramenet’s departure in 2017. Hard standing behind the ring of terracing takes the capacity to 5,000. It is a perfectly functional, if somewhat unremarkable and formulaic stadium. Fundació Esportiva Grama, commonly known as FE Grama or Grama, currently play at Can Peixauet. They were founded in 2013 and, following four consecutive promotions, earned a place in the Catalan section of the old Tercera. Following the restructuring of the Spanish football pyramid in 2021, Grama were placed in the Tercera Federación, where they have recorded four successive top-ten finishes.
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