“The club owner should leave!”… Spanish professional soccer matches suspended due to fan protests

In the Spanish professional soccer league, La Liga, a match was suspended due to protests by fans against the owner's management of the club.

According to Reuters, the 2026-2027 Spanish La Liga 8th round match between Rayo Vallecano and Athletic Club held at Estadio de Vallecas in Madrid, Spain on the 10th (Korean time) was suspended due to protests by home fans.

Vallecano fans, who had been booing and chanting slogans calling for the resignation of club owner and president Raul Martin Fresa even before kickoff on this day, threw paper airplanes and small rubber balls into the stadium in the 13th minute of the first half.

At the 13th minute of the first half, Vallecano's strong supporters sing a song called "Presa, please leave now."

Chairman Fresa has always been antagonized by home fans since taking over the club in 2011.

The referee temporarily stopped the game. Afterwards, the game stopped for about 15 minutes.

An announcement was made asking spectators not to throw objects into the stadium, and stadium staff quickly removed the thrown objects.

Afterwards, the game resumed, but some fans threw objects into the stadium again, leading the referee to stop the game and declare it over.

This match was the first league match played at Estadio de Vallecas this season.

Madrid city authorities revoked the Vallecano club's permit to use the stadium on the grounds that it did not meet safety standards.

Accordingly, Vallecano played its previous three home games this season at the stadium of second division team Leganes.

This situation exploded the anger of Vallecano fans who had been criticizing President Fresa's management of the club.

On the other hand, President Fresa turned his attention to the local authorities in Madrid.

After the game was suspended on this day, the Vallecano supporters' group declared that their protest was a "justifiable, democratic, necessary and peaceful action" and added, "It is the result of 30 years of a situation that puts the safety and health of 15,000 people (the capacity of the home stadium) at risk every two weeks."

However, La Liga said it "strongly condemns these actions, which threaten safety and make the normal conduct of the competition impossible."

La Liga said it would soon announce the schedule for the resumption of this match.