Founded in 1993 it plays in Segunda Federación – Group 4, holding home games at Estadio Municipal Los Arcos, with a capacity of 7,000 seats.

At the end of the 1996–97 campaign, new chairman Ángel Fenoll "acquired" the place of Club Deportivo Los Garres in Tercera División, and Orihuela began their new era in Spanish national football.

[2] Fernando Presa was the head of the new board, but when he and the rest of his associates had to pay Orihuela's debt in order to avoid relegation to the fourth level, they left the club.

With little time to spare, the former board took charge again and paid the debt in the last hour of the deadline – the team was eventually allowed to stay in the third tier and Francisco Rodríguez was named the new president.

In spite of these setbacks, Orihuela had an excellent first half of the season that all but almost guaranteed its presence in the third division for another year, and the board took advantage of this situation to release some of the best players such as Adrián Ripa, José Manuel Meca or Alejandro Colorado in order to reduce the wage budget – finally the team finished in seventh position, with Nacho Cobaleda becoming the first-ever elected president of the club during the campaign (he was replaced by Antonio Felices months later).