Rayo Vallecano B · History

Rayo Vallecano B is the reserve team of Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, the club from the Madrid neighbourhood of Vallecas. It started competing in the 1973-74 season, in the Madrid Regional Preferente. Since then it has played at every level of Spanish non-professional football from the sixth tier up to the third. It has spent four seasons in Segunda División B, one in Segunda Federación and twenty-nine in Tercera División. It has played its home games at the club's training ground, the Ciudad Deportiva, since 2010.

The regional years (1973-1988)

The team spent its first fifteen seasons in the Madrid regional leagues. In 1973-74 the Regional Preferente was the fourth tier of Spanish football, and the Vallecas side finished twelfth in its first season. When Segunda División B was created in 1977, the Preferente dropped to the fifth tier. In 1979-80 the team spent a year in Primera Regional and went up as runner-up. Back in the Preferente, it finished in mid-table for several seasons, between fifth and thirteenth. In 1987-88 it finished second and earned a place in Tercera División. From 1976 it played at the Vallecas stadium, the same ground as the first team.

Three decades in Tercera División (1988-2010)

The team made its Tercera debut in 1988-89 and finished ninth in the Madrid group. In those early years it was still a farm team of Rayo. From 1991-92 onwards it competed as the club's official reserve side. Most seasons were spent comfortably avoiding relegation rather than chasing promotion: the team usually finished between fifth and fifteenth. Its best finishes in that period were fifth places in 2002-03 and 2008-09. In 2003 it left the Vallecas stadium and moved to the Virgen de la Torre municipal ground. It also started winning the Madrid stage of the Copa Federación, which it took in 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2008-09.

Promotion in 2010 and Segunda División B

The 2009-10 season was the reserve side's best in Tercera: it won its group and faced L'Hospitalet in the play-off between group champions. The first leg, in Madrid on 15 May 2010, ended 0-0. A 1-1 draw in the second leg a week later took Rayo B through and earned the club's first promotion to Segunda División B. That summer the team moved to Rayo's training ground. In its first season in the third tier, 2010-11, it finished sixth with 58 points, still its best finish in Segunda B. In 2011-12 it came seventh and won the Madrid stage of the Copa Federación for a fourth time. The 2012-13 season, in Group I, turned difficult early on. The team spent the spring in a relegation fight with sides such as Ourense, Caudal and Leganés, and finished nineteenth, in the relegation places.

Between Tercera and Segunda B (2013-2021)

Back in Tercera, the team finished second in 2013-14 and entered the promotion play-offs. It beat Escobedo 5-1 and 4-0 in the first round but went out in the next one. It got back to Segunda B another way, by taking the place left open when Real Madrid C was relegated for administrative reasons. That second spell in the third tier lasted only one season. In 2014-15 it finished seventeenth and went down again. Two quiet seasons followed, with fifteenth-place finishes in 2015-16 and 2016-17. The team finished third in 2017-18, seventh in 2018-19 and ninth in 2019-20. The 2020-21 season was played in two phases: Rayo B was third in the first and sixth in the second.

Tercera Federación and a season in Segunda Federación (2021-2026)

The 2021 reform created Primera and Segunda Federación, which pushed Tercera down to the fifth tier. Rayo B finished ninth in 2021-22 and fourteenth in 2022-23. In 2024-25 it was runner-up in Group 7 of Tercera Federación and went into the play-offs. In the regional stage it beat Galapagar 3-1 on aggregate, then Torrejón 4-3 after extra time in the second leg. In the national stage it won 2-1 against Varea in Logroño and 3-0 in Madrid. That 5-1 aggregate win brought promotion to Segunda Federación, as it did for the reserve sides of Burgos and Girona. Its only season at that level was 2025-26: it finished eighteenth and dropped back to Tercera Federación in 2026.