People come from abroad. People came from Asturias. People came from all the districts of Madrid. For nothing. Contrary to all logic and as a complete start, the match between Rayo Vallecano and Real Oviedo was postponed without any reasonable reason. It was pouring in Madrid, of course, but that didn’t stop the similarities in the rest of the football pyramid going forward. There was no respect for the general rule that requires cancellations to be announced in sufficient time for tourists to leave and avoid unnecessary and useless travel.
Even worse, nowhere did the authorities use legal means to stop the game because the issue was solely Rayo Vallecano’s fault. Better yet it was Raul Martin Presa, the abominable owner, who is only responsible. A man who once owned a football club that seems determined to destroy it, brick by brick, yet manages to survive against all odds.
Rayo is one of the most popular football clubs in the world. Not Spain, the world. They are one of the few survivors of those working-class football organizations that have been replaced by foreign owners and plastic ownership. They play in the same place where they have been for decades; fans walk the same streets, players and staff join to drink in the same local pubs and the club breathes the atmosphere. In Spain they are a needle in a haystack. There are other clubs in the barrio, but none have been as successful as Rayo, especially in the last four decades.
It was promoted to the first division for the first time in the late 1970s and became a regular La Liga in the 1990s, a time when visiting Vallecas was like feeling the world stand still. The club wasn’t always like that. And Vallecas. A small town far from Madrid, Vallecas became a shantytown for the first time, when the poor from different parts of the provinces of Castile – Andalusia, Extremadura and Castilla la Mancha – came hoping to find in Madrid a better life. Some fled extreme poverty, others political persecution after the Civil War. There they met and created a strong spirit of community that lived from that time even if the town at that time was taken over by the ever-growing Madrid and the slums were filled with people from Africa, South America, Asia or Eastern Europe, at the end of the 1980s.
Vallecas was poor, ethnically divided and had to endure despite the respect of the people of Madrid. And they were extremely creative – dangerous films, rumba or the hip-hop cultural movement in Spain started there – loving and able to protect other men. Wilfried Agbonavare knows this well. The Nigerian goalkeeper became a cult figure in Vallecas after being racially abused in several Spanish football stadiums and was later buried in an extraterrestrial graffiti. A field that was little more than a football team’s home. It was the temple of the community of Vallecas, a place of worship, surrounded by busy and busy streets, where anything could happen, crowded in space, but with enough room for miracles. A sports stadium that is said to be dead.
🗣️ No information, no encajas, no signs… lo mismo la solución eres tú 🫵#Rayo ⚡️ #ADRV pic.twitter.com/drO3ULAt3w
– Dani Huerta Aranda (@UEFAcomDanielH) February 8, 2026
That same platform is the basis of Rayo’s current status. The appointment of the brilliant Andoni Iraola and then, his former deputy, the promising Inigo Perez, lifted Rayo to unexpected heights. Their board did everything possible for the team to be relegated to the second division. The youth system is in shambles, the once proud women’s team has been left for dead, and the training facilities are a joke for a team playing in European competitions. The same should be said for their football stadium.
For anyone who has visited Vallecas, passing through those gates is like stepping back into the 1990s. Nothing has been done to improve the safety of the area or the property, apart from minor changes by the council which were mandatory for safety reasons. It’s like a theme park for horror movie lovers. Not only the fans but the players, staff and referees often complain that they don’t even get clean towels. Supporters have to queue for hours to get a ticket, because the club refuses to sell online. It seems that anything the ownership does is to prevent the club from growing or, at the very least, for its loyal fans to have a good experience.
That’s right. Presa bought the team for 1 euro – with all the debts that came with it, of course – perhaps hoping that one day, he will be able to sell the lands where the stadium is built for less money, since the housing crisis in Madrid is facing the city limits. He had an agreement with the regional government to build a new site, owned by them, not the club, on the outskirts of Vallecas, one of those empty pieces of land around, as often happens in the south of Madrid, until buildings start to appear like mushrooms. That would solve his financial situation, move the club away from their sphere of influence – where they have been criticizing the county government for decades – and make them another plastic club.
It could be the death of Rayo as we know it. The fans know it, the players and staff know it, the media knows it, and Presa is not ashamed to even say it. Here’s a guy who once tried to sign the best Ukrainian player with right-wing links to play for the most left-wing football club in Western Europe. The same one who invited the heads of the neo-fascist political army Vox to the presidential box just to make the point that the club is his and his alone. And that will ultimately cost Rayo more than they can afford.
Last Saturday it was Presa who said that the game was not stopped after the players refused to go to the newly installed stadium, although Madrid is close to the top in recent years because of the rain that week, and that will cause safety problems for the players. The dressing room forced Presa’s hand and if Rayo will leave this situation unscathed it is probably because Javier Tebas, the chairman of La Liga, was once his advocate and shares many of his ideas and goals. However, Rayo’s reputation abroad has been tarnished again, and the club is in danger of being relegated after a successful season where they managed to finish with eight teams to get a place in the Conference League last season.
Rayo Vallecano knows, as a football center, that under Presa they will be destroyed. Soon there will be no Iraola or Perez to save the day. Sadly, no one has the courage to take the necessary steps to try to buy the club from a businessman, someone who understands and respects the true nature of the club. Dark times used to be normal if you were from Vallecas but now Rayo are facing a challenge that could cost them their lives. The horrific events of last Saturday may be the first step to the hell that awaits many smiling while others close their eyes in horror.
