The 30-hour journey from hell: When Real Madrid's Valencia trip turned into a nightmare
A look back at Madrid's infamous 1971 Valencia trip that featured a derailed train, a snowstorm, and a controversial referee decision that sparked outrage.
When a simple away match turned into a 30-hour ordeal through snowstorms and controversy
While January 2, 1971 is remembered as a dark day in football history due to the Ibrox disaster that claimed 66 lives, it also marked one of the most chaotic away trips in Real Madrid’s history - a journey to Valencia that became the stuff of legend for all the wrong reasons.
The journey from hell
Amidst an intense cold snap across Spain - one that would later produce more snow than the famous 2021 Filomena storm - Madrid’s traveling party boarded a train at 10:30pm on New Year’s Day, expecting a straightforward overnight journey to Valencia for their first match of the second half of the season.
The plan seemed simple enough:
- Travel overnight in sleeper carriages
- Arrive fresh in Valencia the next morning
- Conduct a light training session at Mestalla
- Play the match on Sunday
What actually happened was anything but simple.
Stranded in the night
As players slept, the train ground to a halt near Bonete (past Albacete) around 4:30am. A fierce snowstorm had caused a freight train to derail near Chinchilla, completely blocking the tracks.
The Madrid contingent found themselves stranded with limited options:
- Reroute through Murcia and Alicante (arriving Sunday mid-morning)
- Return to Madrid to fly (no available flights)
- Take taxis for the remaining 150km (impractical in the conditions)
Ultimately, they were forced to wait at Bonete until the tracks cleared. The train finally resumed its journey after 5pm on Saturday - meaning players had already spent nearly 19 hours traveling.
When they finally reached their Valencia hotel at 3:17am Sunday morning, the exhausted squad had been sustained only by sandwiches and were suffering from the bitter cold. Manager Miguel Muñoz requested broth for his frozen players, who had just 12 hours before kickoff.
Controversy on the pitch
Madrid’s attempts to postpone the match fell on deaf ears. Unsurprisingly, they lost 1-0 to Valencia (the eventual league champions under Alfredo Di Stefano) thanks to a Forment goal.
But what truly sparked Madrid’s fury was referee Franco Martínez disallowing a Miguel Pérez goal for a dubious offside. The decision led Muñoz to fume: “There’s no right to this. Once again they’ve taken a goal from us because the referee felt like it.”
Madrid formally requested that Franco Martínez be barred from officiating their matches - a request that was granted until January 1973.
The referee later defended himself to MARCA: “I didn’t disallow any goal. When the ball entered Valencia’s net, play had already stopped because I had signaled an indisputable offside.”
The entire saga - from the 30-hour journey to the controversial officiating - has become one of those legendary tales that illustrates both the challenges of Spanish football in a different era and Madrid’s long-standing complicated relationship with referees.