In the last few days, a lot of controversy over Carlos Santiso appointment has been triggered after a new Rayo’s coach was caught on audio making sexist remarks.
Last week, Carlos Santiso was announced as a new coach of Rayo Vallecano, replacing Miguel Quejigo. After his appointment, audio clips of his controversial remarks started circulating on Twitter. On one of the audios, Santiso can be heard saying: “This staff is incredible, but we lack things. We lack, I keep saying it, to do… well… one like those of Arandina. We need to get one, but she has to be of legal age so that we don’t get into trouble…”.
The coach is referring to the ‘Arandina case’, which happened in 2017, in which three players from the Arandina team were accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in an incident that shocked the country. The leaked audios were the reason that Santiso had to leave the coaching post of the Madrid U12 team in November last year.
Comunicado de Carlos Santisohttps://t.co/M8PG4VC18Z
— Rayo Femenino (@RayoFemenino) February 1, 2022
Despite an apology from Carlos Santiso, where he apologized “for the unfortunate, and in very bad taste, unforgivable macho joke,” which he made four years ago in a private Whatsapp group, the fans are demanding his resignation.
The fans protested with two banners on the last match against Valencia. The protests were also directed towards the club’s president, Raúl Martín Presa, who was the person, that decided to go with Santiso. One of the banners read, “Santiso encourages rape. Presa protects him. Players, are you going to accept this?”.
The club and the coach dismissed the option of coach replacement for now. But with increasing pressure from media, fans and players, this might change in the next few days.