The season of Rayo Vallecano is already part of the history of European football. The Madrid team qualified this Thursday for the Conference League final after beating RC Strasbourg Alsace 0-1 in France and closing the tie with a 2-0 aggregate. The team led by Iñigo Pérez will play on May 27 in Leipzig the first European final in its history against Crystal Palace F.C., which eliminated Shakhtar Donetsk in the other semifinal.
The sporting success of Rayo once again brings to the forefront one of the most unique clubs in Spanish football. Founded in 1924, the team represents the Madrid neighborhood of Vallecas, an area historically linked to neighborhood movements, social organizations, and workers' demands.
The identity of the neighborhood has marked the image of the club and a good part of its fanbase for decades, especially groups like Bukaneros, known for their anti-fascist stance and for various social and political campaigns developed around the team.
A club associated with social claims
Rayo Vallecano has starred in recent years in several episodes related to social and political demands within Spanish football.
One of the best-known cases occurred in 2018, when the club launched a second kit with a rainbow stripe whose profits were intended for various social organizations linked to the fight against homophobia, childhood cancer, or gender violence.
The Madrid team has also used armbands with the rainbow flag in official matches and has participated in institutional campaigns against discrimination.
The Zozulya case and the suspension of a match
Another of the most mediatic episodes linked to the club arrived in December 2019 during a match against Albacete Balompié. The match was suspended after part of the Rayo Vallecano fans directed "nazi" chants at the footballer Roman Zozulya.
The referee decided to temporarily stop the match and subsequently suspend it definitively after applying the protocol against insults and offensive chants. The case generated a broad political and sporting debate and ended with economic sanctions and the partial closure of the Vallecas stadium.
The qualification for the European final arrives now at one of the most important sporting moments in the club's history, which will dispute a continental title for the first time more than a century after its foundation.