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Sid LoweSpain writer
This was the best night they had in 40 years, and there was no one there, not to start with. As they warmed up out on the smallest, bobbliest pitch in Primera, preparing to play for a place in the semifinal of the Copa del Rey for the first time since 1982 and only the second time in their entire history, Rayo Vallecano’s players were all too aware that something was wrong. Something else at a club where every day brings a new problem, where players admit this isn’t the way it should be, and the team’s president and fans are engaged in open warfare.
Problems are “a habit,” their captain admitted later, the way things are this week more than ever before.
When the players had arrived at the ground down in the neighbourhood of Vallecas — the Independent People’s Republic of Vallekas, as they like to call it — the fans had been waiting for them, gathered on Payaso Fofo Street. There had been fireworks, drums, banners and songs, a lot of noise. Now, it was oddly quiet, which wasn’t right. In the stand behind the goal, above the cramped dressing rooms, there were empty seats and hardly any people, never mind the megaphones.
The supporters who were going to make this special were stuck outside. Players noticed it and talked about it, feeling almost like they had been lied to. At the gates to the stadium, fans were being stopped and checked, more than ever before, the whole thing grinding to a halt. That felt deliberate, consciously obstructing supporters’ way in. As the game started, they still weren’t there. No flags or scarves or shirts that referenced the Bukaneros were allowed in so when they did finally get through, the game 25 minutes in, some did so “semi-naked” in order to still see their team.
It was Feb. 2, and it was cold.
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The Bukaneros are Rayo’s ultras, although “ultra” is a word as abused…
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Source : espn
