Two months ago, Spanish women's football celebrated its entry into professionalism by signing the first collective agreement in its history. An agreement that was the icing on a well-branched base in recent years, in which interest in soccer players, their sport, their league and their selection had exponentially increased, with the 2019 World Cup in France as a great point of joy and inflection .

Two months after that, the first rise in the salary of some players (from twelve to 16,000 euros) thanks to that agreement and the rights they have achieved with it have directly collided with the crisis and the confinement caused by the Covid-19 . A break that is "a brutal blow", as described by all the players in Spanish women's football, to the current situation in the sector, excited after the great interest aroused in the World Cup and also castled in the constant conflict between the Federation, the Club Association and Mediapro for television rights, which has resulted in the non-broadcast of some of the most important matches of the First Iberdrola.

In this context of coronavirus, stoppage and quarantine and although the protagonists do not dare to give it a number, the losses in women's football are estimated at around 600,000 euros and can lead to serious consequences for the competition . "If you don't have a mattress, a male dad who gives you money ... You can go bankrupt, " explain Madrid CFF, one of the eight to announce ERTEs, reductions or suspensions of contracts in its workforce. The others are Sporting de Huelva, UD Granadilla, Logroño, Atlético de Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Sevilla and Espanyol.

Mediapro's fee

"Our players are not going to stop receiving even a euro", justify in the Madrid entity, the largest quarry in Spain and an organization formed only by women's teams. "They will fulfill 100% the contracts when the league returns", they affirm from the Federation about Madrid, which decided to suspend the contracts of the players. The RFEF, for its part, currently maintains monthly payments to each club enrolled in the Elite Program, which distributes half a million euros per year per team. And Mediapro does the same with the television rights quota agreed in the agreement.

In 2019, the television producer acquired the rights to Primera Iberdrola for nine million euros, to which it has added three more during negotiations for the agreement. "It is up to date with payments, but if it is not resumed there will be important consequences at an economic level ", confirm sources from the Club Association.

Al Espanyol , one of the teams that has had ERTE, has returned Anair Lomba , 'Lombi', who retired last summer but decided to return in the winter to help his team in the fight for relegation. "The return was a bluff , I played two minutes," he jokes, commenting on the uncertainty over the return of the league: " Everything is in the air and they are assumptions . We have a contract until June 30, but it seems very frivolous to talk about football right now. The value of a life is greater than Espanyol's salvation . How do you say to a player who has just lost her mother to the virus that she has to go back to playing because soccer is losing money?

"There are struggles that are not ours"

The confinement is creating a situation of "nerves and uncertainty" in the teams, pending income to survive. "Years ago it would have only had a sporting impact, but with professionalization, the agreement, television rights ... They are no longer just girls playing soccer , there is much more", they assure from the Clubs Association, whose teams advocate the "Need" to return and finish the season "if the situation allows it", in front of the RFEF proposal to cancel the course. “We have commitments that have a significant impact, it is not a youth league. The general feeling is that the league must end the purity of the competition, "they explain.

And far away, the national team in France and the full Metropolitano . "The World Cup was a boom and we expected to grow faster, but we continue to take steps," says Lombi. "There are struggles that are not ours, we put everything on our side and we do not have to go in a hurry because the fall may be greater," she warns.

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  • Women's Football
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