Rayo Vallecano stand by women’s coach who made gang-rape remark on phone

Rayo Vallecano has defended its decision to hire disgraced coach Carlos Santiso to take charge of its women’s team, despite being aware of a leaked recording in which he encourages his staff to find a girl to gang-rape to help team bonding.

Santiso was hired by Rayo on Friday even though he had been forced to resign from his job with the Madrid representative under-12s team in November following the leaking of a voice note sent to his coaching staff. Rayo are based in Madrid and the women’s team plays in the Primera División.

In the recording, which the Guardian has heard, Santiso tells his staff: “This staff is incredible, but there are things we still lack, that we still need. We still need, I still say it, to do something like what those from Arandina did, man,” he added, in reference to three footballers from the Spanish third division team Arandina CF who were each sentenced to 38 years in prison for the gang-rape of a 15-year-old girl in 2017.

He continued: “We need to grab a girl, but overage so we don’t get ourselves into trouble, and to [cargarnosla – which doesn’t translate directly but broadly means to ‘screw her’] there all together. That’s what really brings a staff, a team together. Look at the Arandina lot: they went straight up.” Despite a backlash from fan groups, the club has said it does not intend to take action against Santiso or reverse the hire.

Santiso confirmed that the message was real, according to the Spanish radio station Cadena SER, but claimed it was “an informal chat among friends”. Cadena SER also spoke to the Rayo Vallecano president, Raúl Martín Presa, who told them that he would not be drawn into the issue and would not be pushed into sacking his new coach. “We sign professionals, not