Madrid can take Vallecas from Rayo by March 27, and Presa won't play there as a tenant

The Community of Madrid now has the legal green light it needed to take the Estadio de Vallecas away from Rayo Vallecano. The region's advisory legal commission, the Comisión Jurídica Asesora, unanimously ruled that ending the club's stadium concession is "proportionate" and "appropriate" because of "relevant breaches" of its obligations. That was the last report the regional government was waiting for, and it has until March 27, 2027, to issue the final order. The problem is that Rayo owner Raúl Martín Presa has always said the club will not play in a stadium it doesn't control.

The commission approved its opinion at an Oct. 28 session, and it became public on Tuesday. It says the club committed "very diverse breaches" of the concession it was granted in 2019, mainly in maintenance, upkeep, mandatory inspections and safety conditions. The commission also noted that the stadium has improved since the case was opened, but argued that fixing only part of the problems "confirms the reality" of the breaches at the time.

The case goes back to July 27, when the regional government opened the termination procedure after an audit found serious problems and suspended the concession as a precaution. Rayo had to play their first LaLiga home games at Leganés' Butarque before the suspension was lifted at the end of September, after repairs to high- and low-voltage systems, fire protection and legionella control. The law gives the region eight months from July 27 to resolve the case, which is where the March 27 deadline comes from. Rayo can still file objections.

The regional government insists Rayo aren't going anywhere. Culture and sports councillor Mariano de Paco said last week that "the message I want to send is that Rayo are going to keep playing at their ground, and it will be a better ground." Under the plan he has described, a transition period would let Rayo stay until a new concessionaire takes over, and that operator would have to let the club keep using the stadium for a fee set in a separate agreement.

That is the part the club rejects. According to Marca, Rayo learned about the commission's opinion from the media, had not recieved any official notification as of Wednesday, and are studying a request for injunctive relief. The club's position is that it either stays as concessionaire, buys the stadium or looks for alternatives; it doesn't see playing under a management model imposed by someone else as a permanent solution. In September, Presa told COPE that if the concession were ever withdrawn, "we would have to immediately look to build another stadium," ideally in the Vallecas district, "but if that is impossible, we would survive first, but it's the last thing we want."

Many Rayo supporters, who are at odds with Presa, have long argued that leaving Vallecas is the owner's real goal, El Confidencial noted. Now the timeline is set. By late March, Madrid will have decided who runs the stadium, and Rayo will have to choose between staying as a tenant in their own neighborhood or following through on the threat to leave it.