Spanish top-flight footballers go on strike over financial dispute

Spanish women’s football, which has been at the center of a scandal for more than two weeks caused by the fact that the president of the Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, kissed national team player Jennifer Hermoso on the lips at the awards ceremony after winning the World Cup, again reminded of itself. Football players of the top division – Liga F – went on strike. They will not take part in the matches of the first two rounds of the national championship, which starts on Friday. The reason is financial disagreements with the leadership of the league and clubs. Players demand an increase in the minimum wage. The league claims that meeting their demands will lead to the collapse of the tournament. This is not the first time that female football players have demanded to be paid more. Previously, the players of the US women’s national team, after a long confrontation, ensured that their prize money was equal to that received by members of the men’s national team.

Spanish women’s football, after the Spanish national team for the first time in its history won The World Cup (on August 20, the Spanish team beat the English team in the championship final with a minimal score) was supposed to be on the rise, but instead, it seems to be at risk of getting bogged down in a series of scandals. The first happened shortly after the award ceremony for the world champions. On it is the President of the Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales. kissed on the lips of Spanish team player Jennifer Hermoso. This event caused an unexpectedly powerful effect in the media space. Rubiales was suspended from work, and the head coach of the Spanish national team, Jorge Wilda, lost his position. In addition, Jennifer Hermoso filed a report against Rubiales with the prosecutor’s office, and he now faces charges of sexual assault.

The kissing scandal is still far from over, but a new one is already breaking out in Spanish women’s football. The Spanish Footballers’ Association (AFE) announced that the national women’s championship, scheduled to start on Friday, will not take place because players from all 16 Liga F teams (which has existed since 1988, but only became fully professional a year ago) agreed to join a strike called by the union. AFE stated that the players will not take part in the matches of the first and second rounds of the championship. Decisions regarding the boycott of other matches will be made depending on how the confrontation with the Liga F management and club bosses develops.

AFE’s demand boils down to increasing player salaries. They, admittedly, cannot be compared with what the players of the men’s La Liga receive, where there is no shortage of millionaires.

Last season, the union and the league agreed that the minimum salary for female football players would be €16 thousand per year. Now the players are demanding to raise the bar to €25 thousand per year for the current season and to €30 thousand for the next one. “Our goal is to make progress in negotiations and ensure that female football players are treated fairly and with dignity,” the union said in a statement.

In response, Liga F accused the other side of an unconstructive position taken during the negotiations. In a statement, the league said that it proposed raising the minimum salary to €18 thousand per year, followed by an increase to €25 thousand over three seasons. In addition, Liga F was ready to improve the conditions of maternity leave for athletes and provide financial support for those of them who wish to receive an education. Later, the league agreed to raise the salary level to €20 thousand immediately and to €23 thousand subsequently, provided that the financial results of the teams would allow this. But this proposal was also rejected. The league noted that it simply cannot accept the demands of the players, since in this case it faces collapse, and stated that it will continue to not succumb to “irresponsible pressure.”

Women’s football in Spain lags significantly behind men’s not only in terms of salaries, but also in the income generated by teams (however, this is also true for other countries).

Suffice it to say that championship matches are being held due to low public demand for them in extremely compact stadiums. Sevilla’s is the largest arena used by the women’s team, with a capacity of 8,000 spectators, and is part of the Sevilla men’s training complex. Most Liga F clubs play in stadiums with a capacity of about 3 thousand people or less.

Given, however, current trends, according to which gender equalization in salaries may well occur contrary to economic logic, it cannot be ruled out that Liga F will still have to make concessions. Here you can remember how the US women’s team (it has won four world championships – a record figure) for several years demanded from the United States Soccer Federation (USFF) to equalize bonus payments with the players of the American men’s team and eventually achieved its goal. Even the fact that the US women’s team actually demonstrated that in terms of the quality of play it could not compete with men was not enough to help the federation functionaries fight back. In 2017, for example, a friendly match between the American women and the youth (under 15) team of Dallas took place. The boys won with a score of 5:2. Last summer, the American women took to the field against the Welsh Wrexham (playing in the fourth strongest division of the English championship) and lost – 0:12. However, last year they reached a settlement in their 2019 lawsuit against the USFF, even though the court rejected their claims of gender discrimination back in 2020. The USFF, faced with public pressure, agreed to pay $24 million (the plaintiffs’ original requests were three times that amount) in compensation and continue to pay players on the men’s and women’s teams the same bonuses.

Alexander Petrov