Rayo Vallecano supporters stopped their team’s La Liga match against Athletic Bilbao on Saturday by throwing paper airplanes and other objects onto the field, forcing the game to be suspended. The paper airplanes flew from all three sides of the ground as fans cheered and some held scarves saying, “Presa, leave now. Rayo’s dilapidated stadium has a wall behind one of the goals, meaning fans can occupy only three sides. It resumed in the 24th, but was stopped again shortly afterward. The players and officials left the field, and the fans chanted against Presa.
The fans, unhappy with club owner and president Raúl Martín Presa, first forced the match to stop in the 13th minute with the score 0-0.
The stadium announcer said seven minutes later that the game would be suspended if the protests continued.
Rayo Vallecano supporters stopped their team’s La Liga match against Athletic Bilbao on Saturday by throwing paper airplanes and other objects onto the field, forcing the game to be suspended.
But the game was stopped again just seconds later, it seemed, when more objects were thrown on the field. It was Rayo’s first league game of the season at home in the left-wing Madrid neighborhood of Vallecas (spelled Vallekas by fans). City authorities closed the stadium over safety concerns and forced Rayo to play its three previous home games in another neighborhood, Leganés. Most of the Rayo fans boycotted the games in Leganés.
Because of alleged unsafe conditions, the local government revoked the club’s stadium license. Both teams returned to the field and warmed up and resumed playing after a 10-minute break.
Rayo players Óscar Valentín and Isi Palazón spoke with members of the Bukaneros “ultras” — hardcore fans — behind the other goal, where many of the objects including small rubber balls were coming from. “The referee has decided to suspend the match at the recommendation of the police,” Rayo said in a social media post. It said the city authorities’ summer decision to revoke the stadium license, forcing the team into exile, was the “final straw” after a litany of issues, including “putting the safety and health of 15,000 people at risk every fortnight.”
