El Rayo denies the accusations of the players and the AFE

Rayo Vallecano has issued an official statement this Friday denying the arguments made by the women's team days ago. The franjirrojo club denies that “80% of the workforce has a contract adjusted to the minimum established by the collective agreement” and that “the budget has been reduced.” Regarding the controversy over food, the franjirroja entity insists that “It is supervised by the head of the medical services” and that “at no time has it been interpreted that the cold chain is broken “in the picnic storage when being transported “in the hold of the bus at low temperatures”.

El Rayo not only stands out from the accusations of its players, it also charges against AFE (“It is inadmissible and outrageous”) for claiming that he was not complying with the COVID protocol. The club argues that footballers stay in double rooms, since doing it individually is “a recommendation and not an obligation” and points out that “It is outrageous to call the trip on the official bus overcrowded.” In addition, it ends by expressing its “support and commitment to women's football.”

This is the full statement:

Given the seriousness of the uncertain and malicious accusations made during this week in relation to the situation of our first women's team, with the clear will to damage the good image of the Club, Rayo Vallecano of Madrid is obliged to reliably demonstrate the falsehood of these accusations:

1- It is flatly false that 80% of the staff of the first women's team have a contract adjusted to the minimum provided by the collective agreement (as stated in the letter of the women's staff itself). We attach a report in this sense issued by the independent auditor Audria Auditores.

Similarly the report denies that the salary budget allocated to the first women's team has been reduced with respect to the contracts signed the previous season.

2- Meals on trips outside the Community of Madrid, which usually include dinner, breakfast and lunch prior to the matches and a post-match picnic for the metabolic recovery of the players, are supervised by the head of the Club's medical services as you can check it in the attached report.

The picnic provided by the Club has an exhaustive control of both the food and the person who prepares them (certificate of food handler and periodic health checks Covid 19). In no case has the Club interpreted that the cold chain of food was broken by traveling in the hold of the bus at low temperatures.

3- It is inadmissible and outrageous the absolutely false accusation made by the AFE union about the breach of Rayo Vallecano of Madrid of the Covid protocol approved by the CSD and the RFEF of September 14, 2020.

Rayo Vallecano has been the only Iberdrola League First Division team that, despite multiple pressures from the rest of the teams in the competition, and even from some of its coaches and players, refused to start the preseason until a sanitary protocol had been approved, understanding that the health and therefore the life of our players and their families is far above any sporting competition.

Rayo Vallecano scrupulously complies with said protocol and, based on compliance with it, is why You want to prevent the team of athletes and technical personnel from stopping for lunch or dinner during their trips in any establishment, since point 3.1.2 of said protocol, of social distancing with anyone outside the group, would be breached.

We also clarify that individual accommodation is only a recommendation and not an obligation, in such a way that most of the Iberdrola League teams travel on a single bus to maintain social distancing with anyone outside the group and the members of our expedition are accommodated in double rooms, as are practically all the Iberdrola League teams. It is outrageous to describe the trip on the Club's official bus as an overcrowding of players.

We enclose section III of the protocol referring to travel and accommodation.

4- Rayo Vallecano de Madrid manifests its total support and commitment to women's football as it has been doing to date.