It was June 12, a month ago yesterday, when Cornellà del Terri B played their last league match. Clear defeat in the field of Joanetes (8-2) but the least important was the result. 34 days after the departure, the ship had arrived in port. The adventure ended well, with the team, rookie, eighth in the classification of his group of Fourth Catalan and with 53 points in his pocket. One more story, like others in this world far removed from the professional universe, but with a particularity. It was the first year of life of the subsidiary, which was born thanks to the initiative of a group of friends, who months ago had decided to join forces and resources to do what they like best, which is nothing more than playing in football. They did it and it was Cornellà del Terri who received them with open arms, offering them to be their second team. So far, so good if not for one thing.
The players, at the end of the season, denounce in a letter sent to Diari de Girona that the board has defrauded them of more than 1,800 euros of the nearly 4,500 they have had to pay in two rounds to compete, in addition to the expenses to have a coach. Explained the case and put all the cards on the table, they complain that the club has turned their backs on them. The good will, the good words of the first few months, have faded. Now everything is long and there is no way to solve a case that has not only made them fly up their noses, but has made them want to get back into it next year.
The players explain that for Cornellà the tune was positive from the first moment and that they were always told that if they wanted to play as a subsidiary of the first team and compete in Quarta Catalana, all expenses had to go to his charge. They got the clothes thanks to a number of sponsors and have also paid the coach’s salary month by month. The chips and the mutuality has come out of the pocket of every footballer. This, on the one hand, because the thing does not end here. There are federal expenses, a good sum. After a meeting, the players report that the club calculated that this section climbed a little beyond 4,500 euros. This figure has been paid in two installments (September and January) by all members of the locker room. This includes various positions such as, among others, the registration of the team itself, the refereeing during the preseason and the season or the yellow and red cards that have been seen throughout the League.
Accepting the deal, the months have progressed, the Cornellà del Terri B has competed normally and all the amounts that had been agreed at one time were paid. The problem, according to the players, arises from the moment in which it is tried to plan the following season. There is talk then, always following his version, of 3,500 euros, a much lower amount than a year earlier. The alarms go off and you try to understand why. The staff, on their own, contacts the Catalan Football Federation to find out, one by one, what the prices of each federal expenditure are. At the same time, he talks to the club and demands that those 4,500 euros paid during the course already finished be broken down. “At the next meeting, I tell them what we have discovered in a good way and we take out the papers of the Federation that confirm it. The chair then rises from his chair and leaves the meeting. The other representatives of the board laugh at us and tell us that the one who set the prices was the coordinator, who was the only one who was not at the meeting at the time to explain himself “, they state in the letter. With the numbers on either side is when the complaints come. The footballers claim that 1,834.75 euros have been swindled. They don’t know where that money has gone. They say the registration price of the team and the coach has been inflated, for example. Presumably, it does not square the number of cards, the amount to be paid by a referee in a friendly or the amount to be paid to the coordination. In addition, one of the sections, which goes up to 300 euros, is a deposit in case the team withdraws, which has not happened. That money, as the players say, has not made the trip back.
Justice is demanded from the locker room and it is ensured that attempts to try to settle this matter amicably with the club have not prospered. They even say that the entity has come to recognize that the figures do not agree, but that no further steps have been taken to try to reach an understanding. There have been, according to the players, some meetings to talk about it and also audios in which this topic is addressed. But it has not come to fruition. At the end of the season, they have not recovered the more than 1,800 euros they claim and will not compete next year. They have even spoken with the Cornellà del Terri City Council and with Banyoles, an entity that maintains an affiliation with the Pla de l’Estany club. No luck.
Knowing the testimony of the footballers, Diari de Girona has tried to contact a member of the board of directors of the Agrupació Esportiva Cornellà del Terri to find out their version and point of view on the facts, but so far no has gotten no response whatsoever.
