This Saturday the '

League F

' was supposed to start, the new name given to the first

Professional Women's Soccer League

.

A new leap for a sport in eternal growth.

At twelve in the morning,

Atlético de Madrid and Real Sociedad

had to put the ball into play in the sports city of the rojiblanco team.

But the same women's football that continues to climb steps in the country's media focus continues to find constant stones in its path at every step.

Despite the fact that the visiting teams traveled to the cities where they were to play the matches, there were no initial appointments, there will be no first day and there will be no 'League F' until the last conflict that the

futfem

is experiencing is resolved :

the referees are on strike

since Thursday, two days before the start, demanding a

rise in their wages

and a

professional contract

.

"If we want a professional league, it is important that the referees have a contract.

We are the only establishment that does not have one

," they assured a few days ago.

"Can someone leave a job for 160 euros per game?"

A league outside the RFEF

The summary so far is as follows.

After many months of negotiation, in 2020 the CSD announced the

first Collective Agreement

for women's football.

Sport, until now managed by the RFEF, would have its own organization that would coordinate the competition, a professional sport category, market its television rights and receive aid for its infrastructure.

The Federation would be in charge, as in men's soccer, of the rules of the game and the arbitration establishment.

Last season, the clubs paid

3,300 euros of 'referee receipt

' per game, of which 300 were for the main referee, 172 for the assistants and 80 for the fourth referee.

The rest, for their travel and diets, coordinated by the RFEF.

In these amounts lies the current conflict.

The referees and the Federation demand an employment contract and a model like that of the La Liga referees: a fixed salary with social security and a variable one depending on the refereed matches.

"

The players are professionals

, they have a minimum salary of 18,000 euros. If they want a professional league, the referees also have to be, right?" They ask in the Federation.

"The Federation is using the referees"

The league's response has been an offer "that multiplied his salary by four."

"We have offered that those 3,300 euros per game be full for the salary of the referees. That is,

more than 1,500 per game for the main referee

, for example. And from there continue talking to see how the trips were managed. We We put more money if it was necessary, "explains Beatriz Álvarez Mesa, president of the LPFF, to EL MUNDO.

The head of the women's soccer league describes this situation as "

barbaric

".

"They have put a gun to our necks. With the agreement of the players we were a year and a half. These decisions cannot be made with this pressure," he says, and puts the target on the Federation: "

They are using the referees

as a battering ram The conflict is not with them. They have put obstacles in our way from the beginning, they wanted to load the audiovisual tender so that there would be no television (

DAZN

has the rights for this season ) and they want to boycott the competition. It

bothers us that we have become independent

.

The employment relationship, whatever it may be, corresponds to the Federation and we pay for the service.

The referees belong to the RFEF and they are using them."

"In addition, Álvarez Mesa also asks the CSD to appear: "Here there is an institution that from minute 0 is trying to torpedo the league and another that allows it, which is the CSD.

He shouldn't have allowed this.

We are a disgrace

.

The CSD must ensure the normality of the competitions and if it is going to be interrupted, it must mediate.

They are trying, but it is not enough.

This league is supposed to be a country bet, a country that makes a fool of itself today, "he adds in a conversation with this newspaper.

The CSD and the fire

Sources from

the Higher Sports Council

assure EL MUNDO that the extremist positions of both sides "

are not helping

".

"We do not want to contribute to the

fire

," they qualify.

But they admit that "the president is talking to all the parties to reach an agreement as soon as possible and that this situation lasts as little as possible."

As this newspaper has been able to confirm, José Manuel Franco, president of the CSD, has promised to achieve "

a substantial increase" in the salary

of the referees and support their demands for professionalization, within a sports project that is "with the most illusion this government has promoted.

However, the positions remain immovable.

"They are not going to appear in the games. It is not our issue, it is theirs

," they assured EL MUNDO from the RFEF.

And they didn't show up.

"The minimum is the minimum interprofessional salary and with what they have been offered, it would not come to that.

There is nothing more to talk about

," they insist from the highest organization of Spanish football.

Meanwhile, the league insists that what has been proposed "is worthy."

"I ask the referees to sit with us. I've been in women's football all my life, I have friends who are players, coaches and referees. I don't believe that a referee doesn't accept the raise we've proposed and doesn't want to negotiate.

I do believe that 300 euros per game is bullshit

, I share it. But 1,500 per game is assimilated to what some players receive", concludes Álvarez Mesa.

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

Know more

  • THE WORLD

  • Real society

  • Women's Football