Collective Agreement Blockade: Urgent Assembly of Football Players Needed

“Hello girls, after the last meeting of the Collective Agreement, we have reached a point of blockade by Liga F, so It is URGENT to convene an assembly of players to talk about taking collective measures. ALL FOOTBALL PLAYERS must attend that assembly, since ALL THE UNIONS are also there and we will explain to you in an online call how the situation is and what we can do. Vote for the date and time that suits you best.

This is the message that has reached each and every one of the dressing rooms of the League F. With two days (May 17 or 18, both at 7:30 p.m.) as an option to develop this meeting that aims to be massivethe players will meet on the most voted date to take a position on the inactivity of the agreement in the renewal of the agreement.

A month and a half after the season ends (June 30), there is no agreement. No sign that there might be. “There are many acts that can be carried out, but I don’t want to develop them until the meeting”, affirms Amanda Gutiérrez to Relief. The president of FUTPRO, the majority union at the negotiating table, shuns the option of a break in the F League. “Strike? I don’t want to comment on the actions that can be carried out until we speak with the players”he remarked.

From “assumable” to lack of sustainability

Until now, the response after the last meetings of the agreement has been the same: “No Progress”. In the last one, last Tuesday, May 9, the dynamics did not change. Despite having found some point in common, such as the duration of 3 years or the partiality of 100%, employers and unions are still ‘far’ from a consensus. They separate 3,500 euros. This figure represents the difference between the 16,500 euros per year offered by the clubs and the 19,000 requested by the social bankmade up of FUTPRO, AFE, Footballers ON, UGT and CCOO.

The clubs take advantage of the lack of sustainability of the category to accept the figure proposed by the unions. “It’s assumable,” says Amanda Gutiérrez to Relevo. The president of FUTPRO reveals that the feeling among the players is “frustration”. “No progress has been made at all,” he says. And he criticizes the employer’s delay in sitting down to talk about the matter. “We have been asking to sit down since August because the agreement ends on June 30, 2022. Now they accept that time is running out and there will be no retroactivity“, he remarked.

The head of FUTPRO, the majority union among the players, denounces that the players are losing purchasing power. The feeling of the clubs is mutual. From the employer they ask for responsibility with the most modest clubs and demand more contained figures in the increase in wages. An argument that would be supported by a report from the Higher Sports Council (CSD) published in 2Playbook in which losses of almost 20 million euros are recognized in the 2021-2022 season.

Next stop: June 15

From FUTPRO they indicate that this scenario has changed and that the income forecast for the next few years with television (35 million euros in five seasons), the assets marketed through LaLiga (42 million, also in five years) and the 16 million that the CSD allocated to modernize infrastructures have created a solid foundation on which to grow. For this reason, they ask for three progressive salary increases in the next three years: 20,000, 25,000 and 30,000 euros, respectively. These numbers boil down to 16.500, 17.500 y 19.000 in the employer’s proposal.

The difference is substantial. Although the clubs stress that this minimum wage would only affect a very small percentage of players. About “about 20 or 30 footballers” would be affected. Their cases are those of the last chips of the team. Normally, players who come up from the quarry to add minutes. In this line, warn that if a player from the quarry is going to reach these amountsit will even be more profitable to sign a footballer from outside with the same salary.

The situation is to say the least “tense”. And several of those involved in this negotiating table agree on this. And, despite the fact that there is still no idea of ​​a strike, there is beginning to be a latent idea of ​​being able to carry out an action on the first day of next season if an agreement is not reached by then.

At the moment, there is a meeting planned for the next June 15. Several weeks after the F League ends and the Queen’s Cup final takes place, the agreement once again puts the League in check. In memory that general strike that stopped women’s football three and a half years ago to give way to the signing of a collective agreement that was a pioneer in world football. It was not easy then, with negotiations that lasted for 17 months. And it doesn’t seem like it will be now either…

Mayca Jiménez is a writer specializing in women’s soccer. Passionate about football, she grew up on the benches of the teams that her father coached. And, in journalism, she managed to combine her two

great hobbies: telling stories and being close to the ball. She left her beloved Andalusia at the age of 18 to graduate in Journalism from the Carlos III University of Madrid and worked for almost 7 years at Diario AS, where she led the women’s soccer section. In 2022 she published her book entitled ‘I also want to play football’ with the aim of adding a grain of sand in the visibility of references in women’s football. In addition, she is a commentator for the F League and the Women’s Champions League on DAZN and has covered major events on site, such as the only two Women’s Champions League finals with Spanish representation in Budapest and Gothenburg. She also has a World Cup behind her, after having been one of the special envoys of Relay to Qatar.


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