Hospitalet del Llobregat“Either you pay or you don’t leave.” This is the response received by the players of the first team of the Fundació Acadèmia Hospitalet at the end of this season when they asked to leave the club. Disrespect for their work has been constant for years. “We’ve been the forgotten team,” the footballers claim. Now, however, that little interest in the women’s team has reached a point of no return. The “defective” management of the entity in terms of annual fees has led to the creation of two completely opposite versions of reality: some claim a payment of € 150 per player in order to settle a hole of 3,000 euros and others they argue that there was an unprecedented deal this season not to pay that amount. “They are blackmailing us. If we stay at the club we don’t have to pay this year’s or next year’s fee. However, if we leave, we have to make a payment that we had agreed would not be made this year,” he said. Verónica Muyor, one of the captains.
This year the conditions of the team had to change. With the merger of Santa Eulàlia and Pubilla Cases in the summer of 2021, the Hospitalet Academy Foundation was born, and the first team players were waiting for the old habits to finally disappear. The treatment received had always been “of total negligence” by the entity: they did not have their own balls, reused clothes in not very good condition and were the only team in their category (Preferred) that paid a fee to play .
“With the merger they ask me what the team needs. I tell them that the players can’t keep paying the fee and that more resources are needed for the ‘staff“David Martín, the team’s coach, explains to ARA. with the arrival of a physical trainer—, while the quotas of the players remain in a “we will look at it.” Since then, in several conversations with the coordinator of the feminine one, Carlos Gutiérrez, it is tried to solve the question , but the negotiation seems to be stalling. he adds a reproach. “It’s not good for them to complain about paying 150 euros when a juvenile or a pre-young child pays 570,” the coordinator said on June 14 last year.
In fact, he was the direct interlocutor of Martin and the captains and was fully aware of the situation of the team. “I think they have been so abandoned that they are content with little,” Gutierrez said before the deal in talks to which ARA has had access. The situation was extreme and the firm decision on quotas had to come sooner rather than later. The summer was over and the exchanges of messages continued until, as Martín states in ARA, they are told by the club’s vice-president, Luis Dorado, that “everything is solved”. “The first four teams of the entity will have the same conditions,” says Martin, which was Dorado’s response referring to the two amateurs and the men’s youth team and the women’s first team. Everything was resolved and they finally had the change that the players demanded so much. Or so it seemed.
With this much-sought-after decision finally on the table, the 21/22 season began without a hitch. Months passed and the club never received a communication asking for the fee to be paid into the official accounts (as is the case with all the other women’s teams in the organization). While, on the one hand, the Foundation sent a circular in January in which it recalled that “the card would be withdrawn from all those players who are not up to date with payments”; the players, who had obviously not made any payment, received no notice that they could not play the matches. Until April came.
The lottery, key to understanding the change of position
“Two or three days before the end of the league, the president summons the coach and the captains to a meeting. There we are told that 3,000 euros are missing from the women’s team,” explains Natalia Sanahuja, another of the captains of the league. ‘team. “It didn’t make sense! We hadn’t been asked for anything all year!”, Reaffirms Verónica Muyor. Suddenly, a fact that happened for Christmas makes sense. As in the vast majority of clubs, the Christmas holidays are synonymous with selling lottery tickets. While there was no obligation to sell the entire checkbook, the club’s guideline was to sell as many tickets as possible, obviously without any penalty for returning the entire bundle.
Ximel Bladh, the Swedish player of the team, returned all the numbers to the club’s offices. That’s when he received a Whatsapp message from Vice President Dorado asking him to deposit € 150 “of the lottery” into a club account. She was surprised, as it sounded to her that no deposit should be made if the numbers were not sold, but she ended up making the deposit. “This ended up being really the payment of the Ximel fee,” the captains told ARA. “The club took advantage of it by charging him money in a totally malicious, malicious and inappropriate way. We would like to formally ask for the money to be returned to him immediately,” the players now demand through a burofax that the club has read without issuing an answer.
In addition, four first-team players who are also base coaches have not received their last paycheck. “First they told me I had to return material and some kits, then they made several excuses and in the end they argued to a teammate that the club did not pay players who owe money to the club,” says Dayanna Aquino, a footballer who is in this situation. The coaching staff of the first team has not received the salary of the last month. While the women’s team must suffer all of these circumstances, the first three men’s sets do not have to pay these payments. ARA has contacted the club but they have declined to comment.
