The Rayo Vallecano-Athletic Club will not resume this Sunday. The coach of the Madrid team, Beñat San José, cleared up the main question after the suspension of the match this Saturday in Vallecas: "Rayo will train tomorrow. Tomorrow there will be no game." LaLiga will now have to find a new date to complete a match of the eighth round that could barely advance before being definitively halted due to repeated object throwing from the stands. The competition officially maintains the match with the designation of "suspended", while Rayo's next league commitment is scheduled for Monday, October 19 against Getafe.
The match had started at 2:00 PM at the Estadio de Vallecas and was interrupted for the first time around the 13th minute after numerous paper airplanes and small plastic balls reached the playing field. Referee José María Sánchez Martínez applied the protocol established for this type of incident and the game remained stopped while the objects were removed. When the match could resume, the throws were repeated and the players ended up being sent to the tunnel.
The Police warned that they could not guarantee safety
The referee's report reflects that the situation escalated during the successive interruptions. After the first mass throwing, the first level of the protocol was activated, but after the resumption, objects fell onto the field again and the teams were ordered to withdraw. When the players returned to the field, barely a few seconds had passed before new throws occurred, including plastic containers. The coordinator of security from the National Police then conveyed that it could not be guaranteed that the incidents would not continue and the referee agreed to the definitive suspension. According to the report, none of the objects hit players, members of the refereeing team, or personnel on the playing field.
Before that decision was made, Isi Palazón and Óscar Valentín, two of the captains of Rayo, went out onto the field to address the fans and try to stop the throws. The message did not succeed in allowing the match to continue normally and finally both teams had to return to the locker rooms. LaLiga later condemned "in the strongest terms this type of behavior" considering that they endanger safety and prevent the normal development of the competition.
A protest against Raúl Martín Presa
The incidents occurred in the context of a protest by part of the Rayo fans against the president of the club, Raúl Martín Presa. The confrontation between a sector of the supporters and the management has been intensifying for months and this Saturday it was directly transferred to the match, with chants against the leader and a coordinated action from the stands. The Supporters' Association had presented the mobilization as a protest against the president's management after 15 years at the helm of the entity.
The tension also comes after a few particularly complicated months around the Vallecas Stadium. The match against Athletic was the first league match that Rayo played at home after 147 days, following the security and health issues detected in the facilities that forced the Madrid team to move several home matches to the Butarque stadium.
There will be no football on Sunday in Vallecas
Once the match was suspended, one of the possibilities was that it could be completed this same Sunday, taking advantage of the fact that both teams were already in Madrid. That option has been ruled out. Beñat San José has called his players to a training session to begin preparing for the match against Getafe on October 19 and has expressly stated that Rayo-Athletic will not continue on Sunday.
LaLiga must now communicate the new date and time to play the remaining time. Athletic also has a schedule particularly affected by postponements: the Bilbao team already has the match against Levante from the sixth round pending, suspended due to weather conditions and rescheduled for October 21 at 8:00 PM.
Vallecas is now exposed to a sanction
The suspension will also have a disciplinary course. The corresponding Committee must study the arbitration record and the allegations of the clubs to determine the consequences of the incidents. Among the possible sanctions contemplated by the regulations are fines and, in the most serious cases, the partial or total closure of the stadium during one or several matches, although there is still no decision made regarding Vallecas.
For now, the only sporting certainty is that the Rayo-Athletic will remain pending beyond this weekend. LaLiga keeps the match officially suspended and will have to find a new slot in the calendar to complete it. Therefore, on Sunday, there will be no resumption in Vallecas: the Rayo players will return to work and the outcome of the match will have to wait.