Rayo Vallecano fans protest against the club president, force game against Bilbao to be suspended

MADRID (AP) — 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 fans, unhappy with the management of club owner and president Raúl Martín Presa, first forced the match to stop with the score still 0-0 in the 13th minute, when the Rayo players also walked to the sideline. The stadium announcer said in the 20th that the game would be suspended if the protests continued.

It resumed in the 24th, but was stopped again shortly afterward. The players and officials left the field, and the fans chanted against Presa.

Rayo players Oscar Valentin and Isi Palazon spoke with members of the Bukaneros “ultras” — hardcore fans — behind one of the goals, where many of the objects were coming from.

Both teams returned to the field and warmed up before it resumed again after a 10-minute break. But it was stopped again it seemed just seconds later when more objects were thrown on the field.

The referee spoke with police, then with the teams’ coaches and various team officials in the center of the field. He then signaled the teams to leave the field.

The Bilbao players applauded their fans. Many of the visiting supporters were also among the Rayo fans.

Rayo's first home match

It was Rayo’s first league game of the season in its home ground in the left-wing Madrid neighborhood of Vallecas since city authorities closed the stadium over safety concerns. The team was forced to play its home games in another neighborhood, Leganes, after the local government revoked the club’s stadium license because of its dilapidated and alleged unsafe condition. Most of the Rayo fans boycotted the games in Leganés.

Rayo fans also chanted against Presa during a friendly match at the stadium last week and graffiti saying “Presa, leave now” appeared on the presidential box.

Presa has long been unpopular among the Rayo fans since taking over the club in 2011.

Mariano de Paco, the region’s minister for sports, had called for calm the day before the match, adding in a social media post that “Rayo will get the stadium it deserves. Have faith.”

___

See AP’s full soccer coverage here