The past weeks has been “quiet” days for us, comparing with what is becoming usual the last years: we only appeared once in the media, and right now we’re only a subgroup of the red terror squad which is destroying Spain and the traditional family. We’re not the “devil himself” anymore…for the moment.
About the group and his activity, we had the derby against Atletico de Madrid on January 26th, with no visitor’s allowed to travel, so we had a quiet day preparing the match, where we displayed a twofold Tifo using the image of Jupiter/Zeus, the “God of the Thunder” trying in this way to make it clear to our players and fans that “Nobody surrenders here!” (using a wordplay which unfortunately is lost in English translation) and holding a thunderbolt. With the arrival of the players, we showed the second part if the Tifo, where Jupiter hits Neptune/Poseidon with a thunderbolt. Why? Because Atletico fans celebrate their victories at the statue of Neptune. Victory that they also had here…but that’s doesn’t matter. A derby is for expressing passion, so we did our best from the End stand.
Next match home was Málaga two weeks later, wihout any travelling fans again! Repression and ticket prizes are destroying Spanish fan culture, and not just Ultra’ movement. Only a few visitors came to Vallekas, even with their team in a needy situation. Just like ours; so during the week the lots of fans were using social networks for showing their support to the team, under the hashtag #ahorarayoahora (#nowrayonow). But real support is shown at the stadium, so we received them with a Tifo formed by a big banner with the words “AHORA RAYO AHORA” and all our (new) supporting material in the air. The atmosphere before the match was great. The atmosphere at the match was magic. One of the greatest atmospheres in the stadium this year (maybe the best) which guided the team to a great victory. 4 – 1 in one of the best matches we remember for a while.
And after that, it was the turn for us to follow our team away from home. Rayo visited FC Barcelona in their own city. A match interesting for the thousands of tourist who pays impressive amount of money for having a close picture of Messi and Neymar. There was nothing for us at the ground, just the usual “big fish eating the small one”. Usually pride can become bigger than money, but not when the difference is so huge. 6 – 0 for FC Barcelona. Nevermind, that’s not our league and we know it. The reason for us to highlight this as one of the important matches of the year was to visit Camp Nou, one of the few stadiums that we were missing to hang our banner. It couldn’t be. Coppers found the buses that were carrying about 100 ultras a few kilometers before Barcelona. No banners, no flags, no scarves, no “Bukaneros” name in “their” city or “their” stadium. We did our best in the visitors sector of an stadium which looks more like a theatre than the home of one of the biggest clubs in the world. 1300km more on our back, and ticket that off our bucket-list!
During this weekend (22-23rd of February) we will be celebrating acts “Against Repression and Modern Football” with the company of Biris (Sevilla FC) and Riazor Blues (Deportivo de La Coruña), due to the match between Rayo Vallecano and Sevilla FC. Demostration, merch, speeches, boxing night will all be staged…keeping the struggle alive in what is increasingly becoming an over-commercialized Football league.
