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Spanish Football League takes legal action over players' strike

Xinhua, May 8, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Spanish Football League (LFP) announced on Friday that it was taking legal action against the players' union AFE in the wake of the players' decision to call a strike as of May 16.

The AFE strike, which coincides with one called by the Spanish Football Federation for the same date, is related to their dissatisfaction with several points included in the recent Decree passed by the Spanish government to permit the collective sale of TV rights.

Speaking at a mass press conference on Thursday, Luis Rubiales, the president of the AFE assured that the union were in favor of collective TV rights, but that they wanted a fairer split in the way the money was divided between Primera and Segunda Liga clubs.

He said the AFE were also worried by the disappearance of the minimum wage and by a clause which apparently gives the LFP arbitrary disciplinary rights.

The strike could bring chaos to Spanish football with two games left to be played in the league, as well as the King' s Cup final, but the sight of club captains from Spain' s top clubs all lending their support to Rubiales shows the players are serious, although their president left the door open for negotiations.

However, for the moment the LFP do not appear to be interested in negotiations as it issued a communique insisting the "objectives" of the strike were "illegal."

"They are asking the modification of a part of the law and those modifications cannot be the objective of a strike in the private sector, as the law makes clear," said the communique, which states the players are "clearly breaking," the collective agreement between LFP and AFE.

"If the strike is declared illegal then we will proceed to seek damages and the clubs will be able to apply the disciplinary measures they find convenient," declare the LFP.

Meanwhile LFP President, Javier Tebas commented, "the damages are terrible and important, people have shown how worried they are, even from as far away as China, about the consequences for our sponsors." Endi