After negotiations to improve salary reached a stalemate on Thursday, the unions representing the players in Spain’s women’s top flight, Liga F, said that they will continue with their strike action in order to get their demands met.
A strike spanning the first two rounds of fixtures was called for by five different unions the week before last, including AFE and Futpro.
In a joint statement, the unions said, “We consider the final financial proposal from Liga F to be unacceptable, and the five unions still maintain a firm proposition regarding the minimum wage that must be set in order for female footballers in our country to have salaries commensurate with their talent.”
The unions stated that they had decreased their demand to a minimum wage beginning at 23,000 euros ($24,600), while Liga F refused to extend their offer beyond 20,000 euros ($21,400).
The current annual minimum wage for Liga F players is 16,000 euros, which is equivalent to $17,000.
“After holding a meeting yesterday with the Liga F players, they believe the employers’ proposal to be unacceptable, and they are saddened that they need to maintain a strike even though they have lowered their initial proposal to 23,000 euros per year,” the unions stated. “After holding a meeting yesterday with the Liga F players, they consider the employers’ proposal to be unacceptable.”
“Let’s not forget that it would mean earning less than the (match) referees,” the speaker said.
When Liga F became a professional league a year ago, that was the beginning of the negotiations on wages and conditions. The players’ starting salaries were the sole topic of discussion at the meetings that took place this week.
The first round of matchups was scheduled to occur between September 8-10, and the second round was scheduled to take place between September 15-17.
The opening week of matches in Liga F were complicated by a strike among referees during the previous season.
In the end, the league came to an agreement with the referees to pay them increased match fees, and the Spanish government stated that they would contribute to a retirement fund for referees.
The Spanish women’s football team, La Roja, has been in the spotlight ever since they won the World Cup in August. However, the celebration was marred by an incident that occurred during the medal ceremony after the game that involved the head of the federation, Luis Rubiales.
Rubiales, who is 46 years old, infuriated people all over the world when he kissed Jenni Hermoso, who plays midfield for Spain, against her will.
The head of the federation caused further uproar when he gave a belligerent speech in which he railed against “false feminism” rather than resigning in spite of the rising pressure that had been put on him to do so.
Rubiales stated that their kiss was voluntary, but Hermoso denied that it was and said that she felt like the “victim of an assault” as a result of it.
The governing body of football on a global scale During the course of FIFA’s investigation into disciplinary action, Rubiales has been provisionally suspended for the next 90 days.
On Wednesday, Hermoso submitted a complaint against Rubiales to Spain’s Supreme Court of Justice for Criminal Matters.
At the moment, 81 players from Spain are on strike against the women’s national team; this will continue until the leadership of the federation is changed; Jorge Vilda, who was under fire for contentious coaching decisions, was fired on Tuesday.