Rayo Vallecano de Madrid beat Getafe 2-0 in La Liga on Monday, dealing their crosstown rivals a fifth consecutive loss.
Manucho tapped in Emiliano Insua’s cross to open the scoring at the Campo de Futbol de Vallecas in the eighth minute.
Nicolas “Miku” Ladislao replaced Manucho up front in the 61st minute and 12 minutes later capped a flowing buildup by scoring against his former club.
Photo: EPA
Getafe’s Roberto Lago and Rayo’s Javier Aquino both earned straight red cards for a scuffle with three minutes to play.
With only one loss in their past five games, the modest Rayo side strengthened their hold on 11th place.
Getafe were left in 15th and at just five points above the relegation zone, they have yet to secure their place in the top flight next season with two matches to go.
“Clearly, the long season is wearing us down, but there is no other choice than to keep going and those of us who are fit have to get ready to give it our all for [Sociedad Deportiva] Eibar next,” Getafe midfielder Pedro Leon said.
However, the final two matches are in doubt after the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) announced it was suspending all matches from Saturday in protest at a proposed law regulating the sale of broadcasting rights.
The league (LFP) on Monday urged players and officials to abandon the threatened strike, warning of the “serious harm” to the sport if key end-of-season matches are scrapped.
“They [the players] are the ones who have called the strike and they are the ones who must call off these stoppages,” LFP president Javier Tebas told a news conference. “It is not only professional football that is concerned, but also the football that they claim to care so much about — the third division and amateur football.”
He spoke after an extraordinary meeting of the league body, which represents the top two divisions of Spanish soccer.
Tebas has long been vying for control of Spanish soccer with Angel Maria Villar, head of the RFEF which governs the lower leagues and amateur soccer in Spain.
The RFEF and the players’ union are protesting against the terms of a new law that obliges broadcasters to negotiate collectively with the league for the lucrative rights to screen matches and redistribute the revenue.
They say it does not give a fair share of television revenue to smaller lower-league clubs.
The league warned in a statement after Monday’s meeting that the federation’s “actions with the connivance of the footballers’ union are causing very serious harm to professional and amateur football.”
It urged the federation and the union to drop their threat to strike and negotiate in line with existing agreements.
The league on Friday last week filed a lawsuit against the union to block the strike. It has also launched procedures against the federation over its threatened stoppage.
Tebas warned the strike could cost 50 million euros (US$56 million) per match day in lost revenue.
The Spanish National Court has summoned the league and the union to present their cases at a hearing scheduled for today.
It said in a statement it would then decide whether to order the strike to be suspended.
Meanwhile, Tebas said the league would hold mediation talks with the union from yesterday.
The stoppage could affect all top-flight games this coming weekend, including the clash between Atletico Madrid and Barcelona at the Vicente Calderon in Madrid on Sunday in which the Catalans could be crowned champions.
If no agreement is found in time, it could also affect the Copa del Rey final between Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao scheduled for May 30.
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