BarcelonaSince Spain won the World Cup two weeks ago, Spanish women’s football has had to suffer the consequences of the non-consensual kiss on Jennifer Hermoso by the president of the RFEF – now temporarily suspended by FIFA – who has clung to the position while proclaims again and again that the victim, the player, is lying. Because of this, Hermoso’s teammates and state and international women’s football have risen unanimously to say “it’s over”, to the point that the 23 world champions have assured that they will not return to the Spanish team until the current leaders leave.
But the struggle to keep taking steps forward, sportingly and socially, is much broader. And the next episode will happen very soon, this Monday, when the unions (FutPro, AFE, Futbolistas ON, CCOO and UGT) and the employer (LFPP) will seek to reach an agreement for the collective agreement of professional women’s football in the meeting that they will keep In case this is not the case, the players, through the unions, already sent a letter to SIMA on Friday to inform of their decision to strike during the first two days of an F League that should start next weekend .
Until now, the main lack of understanding in the negotiations that began in January has been what the minimum annual salary for female footballers should be, which is currently at 16,000 euros. The last proposal of the LFPP had been an increase to 19,000 euros in three years (16,500 the first and 17,500 the second). Instead, the unions want the minimum wage to practically double in the same period to reach 30,000 euros (20,000 the first and 25,000 the second). But the situation has become even more complicated due to the commercial income that Liga F will have to cede to the RFEF.
League F will have to give 20% of its commercial income to the RFEF
“I hope there won’t be a strike,” Beatriz Álvarez, the president of League F, told ARA. “Today, talk about equal pay in football (in the Men’s League the minimum salary is 182,000 euros) is not realistic. We only have one year compared to the 40 that the men’s has. And they receive 2,000 million euros in audiovisual rights and we only receive 7”, argues Álvarez. In addition, he complains that the Superior Sports Council (CSD) “forces the F League to pay 20% of the commercial income to the RFEF from this year, which represents 1.5 million euros”. And he asks: “Since when is the poor the one who has to help the rich?”
In this sense, official sources of the CSD have contacted the ARA to explain that this is a consequence of the fact that there is no coordination agreement between the F League and the RFEF – despite the fact that the statutes have been approved since of March 2022-. Thus, as dictated by the new Sports Law, the CSD “had to resolve this June the aspects necessary for the development of the Women’s First Football Division”. The two objectives were “to fulfill the functions that the Sports Law attributes to the CSD in the absence of agreement between the parties” and “to guarantee the future of Spanish women’s football”.
According to the CSD, “this percentage of 20%” of the commercial income” that Liga F will have to give to the RFEF serves to “equalize the amounts collected by the men’s football agreement and is part of a distribution system the wealth of professional competitions for the promotion of non-professional categories”. On the other hand, the CSD “has committed to sustaining the structure of the F League in its launch between 2022 and 2024”. This will bring 20 million euros in this period: 5 in 2022, 7.5 in 2023 and another 7.5 in 2024.
Gradually reduce the wage gap
“I have to think about all the teams, also the independent ones, not just the ones with the most financial capacity. We have to improve little by little and cut the salary gap”, considers Álvarez. But, aside from the minimum wage, there are more aspects at stake in the collective agreement. For example, the development of harassment, maternity and family reconciliation protocols and the improvement of the conditions in which female players do their work, an aspect that includes the improvement of sports facilities (some of which are still artificial turf) and the number of professionals in the teams dedicated to taking care of the physical and mental state of the players. “Our goal is to advance the rights of female footballers”, announces the president of League F. In addition, she emphasizes the importance of “improving the facilities and television broadcasts because it is what attracts the brands and, therefore , the money”.
Álvarez criticizes Rubiales
The relationship between the F League and the RFEF has not been good at all since the former was born last year. And Álvarez doesn’t hide it. “From the very beginning, the RFEF has tried to complicate things for us,” he says, to quickly put the spotlight on Rubiales, the unfortunate media protagonist of recent weeks for his non-consensual kiss on Jennifer Hermoso during the World Cup final ceremony and the sexist attitudes he had on the same day.
“There were a few weeks when I repeatedly asked Rubiales to have meetings to discuss important aspects of Spanish women’s football. My request was to do them by video call because I had just become a mother, my daughter was in her period breastfeeding and it was the only way I could reconcile,” Álvarez recounts. “He kept giving me excuses not to do these meetings until one day he sent me an email in which he told me that I had to set an example with my motherhood and dedicate myself to raising my daughter,” she adds the president of League F, annoyed by the attitude the Spanish leader had towards her.
2023-09-04 05:45:51
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