Strike postpones start of Spanish season
Reuters - Friday 19 August 2011, 14:50
MADRID - The opening weekend of the
Spanish football season, scheduled to start on Saturday, has
been postponed due to strike action by the players' union (AFE)
after talks failed to reach an agreement, the football league
(LFP) said on Friday.
"Both parties have explained their positions and have agreed
to continue with the conversations over the meetings already
agreed, on Saturday at and on Monday at the same
time," the LFP said in a statement.
The AFE are demanding greater protection for players' wages
at clubs who have gone into financial administration and last
week called a strike for the first two rounds of matches in the
top two leagues.
The AFE say around 50 million euros is owed by
clubs to more than 200 players, and that a proposed emergency
fund of 40 million euros put forward by the LFP was not enough.
The first meeting between the sides on Wednesday ended
quickly with no resolution.
"I prefer not to speak about what may happen," said Jose
Luis Astiazaran, president of the LFP which represents the 42
professional clubs in the top two divisions.
"There is a strike called for the first two rounds of
matches. We'll have to wait and see what happens overall. We'll
try and reach an agreement and seek solutions to avoid the
strike for the second round of matches."
Spokesman for the union, Luis Gil, told reporters: "We will
meet tomorrow to try and narrow the differences. At least on
this occasion they have put proposals on the table, something
which didn't happen before. Now we need to evaluate them."