MADRID (AP) \u2014 Rayo Vallecano\u2019s home match against Oviedo in the Spanish league on Saturday was postponed on short notice because of safety concerns over the field at Vallecas Stadium.<\/p>\n
The Spanish league said the decision, which was made just hours before the scheduled kickoff early Saturday afternoon in Madrid, was intended to \u201censure the physical safety of players.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe decision was made after it was determined that the field does not meet the necessary guarantees for the match to be played safely,\u201d the league said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Oviedo said it understood the decision but criticized the short notice, with the team and its fans already in the Spanish capital. The club said it would consider legal action.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision clearly damages the club from a sporting, organizational and financial perspective,\u201d it said. \u201cThe club will study and pursue all appropriate legal actions with the relevant authorities, with the aim of safeguarding the result of the match and ensuring fair competition.\u201d<\/p>\n
The game\u2019s result could affect the fight for relegation. Rayo has 22 points, six more than last-place Oviedo.<\/p>\n
Rayo players earlier in the week, along with Spain\u2019s players\u2019 association, had expressed concerns about the condition of the field in a statement. <\/p>\n
The league said Saturday that Rayo had made significant efforts during the week, including replacing the whole field, to save the game. <\/p>\n
\u201cAdverse weather conditions during the execution of these works, as well as the forecast for the coming hours, predicting continued rain, have prevented the field from reaching the necessary optimal condition,\u201d the league said.<\/p>\n
Spanish media said Sevilla had also requested the postponement of its home match against Girona later Saturday because of the weather conditions. The league was yet to make a decision about that game.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/p>\n
Tales Azzoni, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MADRID (AP) \u2014 Rayo Vallecano\u2019s home match against Oviedo in the Spanish league on Saturday was postponed on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-459866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}