• Toni Kroos. "Give us the money and we will do sensible things"
  • Athletic, without losing more than 18% of salary

A war within a war is too much for football. The one that frees the entire world against the coronavirus is framed within the one that grips the sector itself, in the middle of a fight of interests and egos. Even the outbreak of the pandemic has not fostered a truce for the common good. The failure in the search for a sectorial cut in footballers, the best-paid group of workers in the country, is spiced with initiatives, declarations or alleged agreements that undermine or reinforce the position of each leader in his kingdom of taifa, but undermine a common solution. Soccer today is more money, politics and ego than sport.

Javier Tebas , David Aganzo and Luis Rubiales are the actors in this war. The first and the second, at the head of the League and the Association of Spanish Soccer Players (AFE), did not reach an agreement on Monday for a cut agreed in the sector. This will lead to unequal situations among the squads, depending on the situation of their clubs. Each one will raise their cut and their ERTE, as recommended by the League. Those from Barcelona, ​​Espanyol and Alavés have already been accepted by the administration.

Rubiales, at the head of the Federation, led, yesterday within the framework of the Delegate Commission, an agreement with the union so that the players do not play, if they return to the fields this season, within 72 hours. They also agreed to limit match times due to the heat on an express summer. Immediately, the League, with a voice in the Delegate Commission, denied both pacts. Remember the organization led by Thebes, that the competition to set schedules is yours, not the Federation's.

"I must think about the day after"

"The players union has not understood the seriousness of the situation, it is out of reality," says Tebas, in relation to the lack of agreement for the salary cut. "I think soccer players, in general, are not just aware of the situation we are in," adds the leader, to whom some voices have reproached his approaches since the beginning of this crisis for understanding that he was only referring to the risks economic in the middle of a health emergency. The AFE and the Federation refer primarily to health.

"Of course I am concerned about health, more would be lacking, but because of the position I occupy and the responsibility I have, I must think about the day after, the viability of professional football, of an industry that means a lot in this country and now we all play. It is necessary that we take the appropriate decisions, "responds the employer's leader.

The calculations of the League show a catastrophic loss in the event that the competition could not be resumed, a remote scenario, but that cannot be ruled out and has to be foreseen in the protocols of action of the clubs. This is reflected, for example, in the previous agreements reached by clubs such as Atlético de Madrid, which agreed with the footballers the decrease in their wages before finalizing the ERTE for the rest of their employees, as this newspaper announced. "It would be about 1,000 million euros," says Tebas, among television rights that could not be collected, plus other affected items, such as box office income, credits to be returned or losses in marketing.

60% for wages

Under normal conditions, of those 1,000 million, 600 would go to wages, according to employers. That is, 60%. For this reason, Thebes considers that the offer transferred by the AFE was inadmissible, and that is that, in that case, the players lost 20% of their annual salary and recovered 10% the following season. Should the League return, they would keep their salaries. "If the competition returns, their offer was to lose zero, and that cannot be either, because even if the television rights are charged, there will have been substantial losses," adds Tebas. In the best of scenarios, that return of the games would be behind closed doors.

Rubiales, for his part, offered to open a credit line to help clubs worth 500 million and from which professional teams could also benefit, with their television rights as collateral, but Tebas replied that this solution was not possible , given the provisions of the Royal Decree of centralized sale of rights.

The president of the League has been facing Rubiales since his time in AFE. Aganzo, who joined the union as the second's dolphin, is now positioned against his mentor and, due to the refusal to cut back, in a difficult situation vis-à-vis Thebes. Three leaders out of tune in command of the three legs of football. Bad business, and more in times of war.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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  • Luis Rubiales
  • Javier Thebes
  • Barcelona
  • Atlético de Madrid
  • sports

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