For the second weekend in a row, a match scheduled to take place at Vallecas will no longer to be played there. Rayo Vallecano’s home fixture against Atletico Madrid, which takes place on Sunday, has been moved from the stadium.
Last weekend, Rayo-Real Oviedo was postponed hours before kick off due to concerns over the Vallecas pitch. Since then, more work has been done to ensure that the Atleti clash would be able to be held at the stadium, and there has been confidence from within Los Franjirrojos that it would be possible.
However, it is not to be. On Thursday, La Liga published a statement confirmed that Rayo-Atleti will now take place at Butarque, home of Leganes.
“La Liga wishes to inform that the Rayo Vallecano-Atletico de Madrid match corresponding to Matchday 24 of La Liga will be played at the Ontime Butarque Stadium, at the scheduled time on Sunday 15 at 16:15.
“Despite the intensive work carried out by Rayo Vallecano at the Vallecas Stadium since last week, under the constant monitoring and coordination of La Liga, these reports prove that the pitch does not yet meet the necessary guarantees for the celebration of the match in safe conditions for the integrity of all the players and refereeing team. with the consequent risk of injury. So the match will finally be held at the CD Leganes stadium, with the approval of all the clubs and institutions involved.”
The last seven days have been incredibly difficult for Rayo, whose president Raul Martin Presa has received a lot of flak over the club’s handling of the Vallecas situation. It is unacceptable that these issues are still present, but work must go on to ensure they are remedied as soon as possible.
