LaLiga: Rayo Vallecano v Athletic Bilbao abandoned after paper plane protest against the president

Rayo Vallecano had waited all season for this Saturday. Three home games exiled to Butarque, seven points taken from nine, then finally a return to Vallecas for matchday eight of LaLiga against Athletic Bilbao. The match never reached a conclusion: at 0-0, paper planes landed on the pitch, the referee sent the players to the dressing rooms, and the game was definitively abandoned.

A warning, then a final stoppage

Referee Sánchez Martínez first halted play and warned the stands: one more throw would mean an indefinite suspension. The planes kept coming, the players went inside, and the stoppage became final. On what was thrown, accounts differ: L’Équipe describes mostly paper planes, Foot Mercato reports planes packed with plastic balls.

The planes targeted Presa, not Athletic

This was no spontaneous outburst. Rayo supporters want president Raúl Martín Presa out of their club. The federation of supporters’ associations calls it a “peaceful” protest, “the inevitable reflection of the exasperation, frustration and anger of thousands of season-ticket holders after years of disastrous management” by Presa, and traces the trigger to 28 July, when the club lost the Vallecas concession. One supporter told Foot Mercato: “It’s a complete disaster. They can give us the win, but this is the only way to show that we want this man to leave the club.”

A match to replay, with no result to read

LaLiga “firmly condemns this type of behaviour, which endangers safety and makes the proper conduct of the competition impossible” and will announce a new date “shortly”. Nothing comes out of the afternoon: no goal, no point, both teams stay on eight points, Rayo 12th, Athletic 10th. For the bettor, this match does not exist yet; it has to be replayed first. Athletic, travelling without Nico Williams, Oihan Sancet and Laporte, made the trip for nothing.