In a context in which conflicts in women's football have been mediated, it is easy to confuse concepts that have nothing to do with each other. Spanish soccer players are not going on strike for Rubiales, for Jenni Hermoso or because they want to earn million-dollar salaries. They do it because three years ago the first collective agreement expired. A still precarious agreement that established a minimum annual salary of 16,000 euros and contemplated contracts for 75% of the day, with hardly any reference to maternity or sexual harassment. Today the League is no longer amateur, it is legally classified as professional and as such must be reflected in the conditions of the new agreement. Finding the balance between a decent salary and the viability of the clubs is the key.
In September of last year, the new League F, the first women's professional league, began to operate, but to professionalize a League it takes much more than publishing it in the BOE. There is a need for fields that meet certain minimums, without soccer 7 lines, with good lighting and without very damaged artificial grass. Something that continued to be seen last season in stadiums such as those of Levante Las Planas, Betis or Sporting de Huelva. The aid promised by the CSD to improve facilities hopes to improve this in the near future. It is also necessary for all teams to have doctors, nutritionists, psychologists... in short, extensive technical teams that cover all the needs of the soccer players without having to go seek these services outside the club.
The great handicap is the enormous difference that exists between some clubs, both in sports and in terms of infrastructure. Independent clubs such as Madrid CFF, Granadilla or Levante Las Planas have a more difficult time competing with those that have the structure of a men's team behind them.
In October 2019, the Spanish footballers announced a strike to achieve, once and for all, a collective agreement that defended their interests. It was approved in the summer of 2020 and regulated the working conditions of the players for the first time. A minimum salary of 16,000 euros was established with a partiality of 75%, that is, clubs could hire footballers part-time, something common in women's football until recently. The text was approved with the idea that they were the minimum bases to extend it the following season, but the agreement has been extended without renewing it.
After years of immobility, the soccer players began negotiations for a new agreement last fall. Some conversations that did not come to fruition and led to a strike call for the first two days of the League. The first has already been carried out this weekend, unanimously, despite the fact that the first dissatisfied voices are beginning to rise. Players like Patri Ojeda (Sporting Huelva) or Esther Sullastres (Sevilla) have publicly expressed their opposition to continuing the strike and consider the 20,000 euros offered by the League to be fair. In their latest proposal, the unions requested a minimum salary of 23,000 gross euros per year for this season.
The clubs are fully aware that if they want to participate in a professional League they must remunerate their footballers as such, but they are very concerned about doing so by guaranteeing the viability of their clubs. The employers' association has denounced on more than one occasion the “drowning” to which it is subjected by the Spanish Federation, which keeps 20% of its commercial income. They claim not to be able to offer more than those 20,000 euros, something that the unions consider completely insufficient. Although it is true that League F has received a large contribution from the CSD, something that the social bank remembers, it should be noted that of those 22.5 million, 15 are to create the structure of this new League and the rest goes directly to improve the infrastructure of the clubs.
The new agreement must regulate crucial aspects such as motherhood or establish a protocol against sexual harassment to avoid cases such as those of Randri García in Alhama or Santiso in Rayo Vallecano.
