Grounded: Rayo Vallecano’s paper planes bring club’s crisis into the open

Long-awaited return to Vallecas lasted just 13 minutes, as supporters made their displeasure to their chair, Raúl Martín Presa, impossible to ignoreIt took 147 days for Rayo Vallecano to walk out for a competitive game on the Avenida de Albufera and 24 minutes and 56 seconds for them to walk off again. Half of those had been spent watching thousands of paper planes touch down on the turf, play suspended while a message was delivered, over and over, until it was impossible to avoid. Forced from their home, the team from the barrio had been away for five months. On the bright Saturday afternoon that they came back, there were just 13 minutes of football, a fans’ protest instead forcing the abandonment of their match with Athletic Club, the latest episode in a never-ending story.The last time there had been a league game here was a victory over Villarreal in May. A lot has happened since: little Rayo, Rayo Vallecano, had played a European final, 11,000 fans heading to Leipzig where, as the banner perfectly put it, they knew no greater victory than being with you in defeat. Iñigo Pérez, the manager who took them there, had departed. And Óscar Trejo, the man who gave up the armband over treatment of staff – the best thing he could do as captain was to stop being captain – had retired and been immortalised the way the barrio does best: in graffiti four storeys high. Then, in late-July, the Madrid government suspended the agreement that allows them to use the ground in return for €81,784 a year. Continue reading...