History
One of the perennial yo-yo clubs of Spanish football, Rayo Vallecano spent many years during the 1980s and 1990s moving back and forth between the first and second divisions. They appeared to have consolidated their top flight status after promotion in 1998–99, and the team's most successful season came in 2000–01, when they reached the UEFA Cup quarterfinals, going out only to eventual runners-up Deportivo Alavés (Rayo finished ninth in the previous season, but entered the competition via the fair play draw).
However, the club shortly thereafter fell on hard times, enduring successive relegations from the first (in 2002–03) and second divisions (2003–04). In 2005–06, the club hired Míchel, a legend for Real Madrid in the 1980s and 90s, as team manager.
The club finished the 2006–07 season in second place in third-tier, winning the promotion play-off semifinal, but losing in the final to SD Eibar (1–2 aggregate). The next season, Rayo returned to the second division after a four-year absence, winning the play-off, disposing of Benidorm CF in the semifinal, and Zamora CF in the last game (2–1 aggregate).
In the first season back in the second tier of Spanish football, Rayo finished comfortably, often either in or just outside the promotion places. That same year, its women's team was crowned league champions for the first time, thereby qualifying for the UEFA Women's Champions League, but were eliminated 2–5 on aggregate in the round-of-32, by Russia's WFC Rossiyanka.
In 2010–11, Rayo Vallecano finished in second position and returned to the top flight after an eight-year absence, only trailing champions Real Betis in spite of very serious economic problems. In late March 2012, in support of the 2011–2012 Spanish protests, the squad decided to take one day off from training to join the demonstrations.
Read more about this topic: Rayo Vallecano
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of all previous societies has been the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation, because as a result of what happened in this week, the world is bigger, infinitely.”
—Richard M. Nixon (1913–1995)
“To history therefore I must refer for answer, in which it would be an unhappy passage indeed, which should shew by what fatal indulgence of subordinate views and passions, a contest for an atom had defeated well founded prospects of giving liberty to half the globe.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)