The National Association of Spanish Football Coaches (ANEF) has given its support to the call made by the Spanish Footballers Association (AFE) to go on strike for the first two weeks of the new season.
In a statement issued on Friday the ANEF said it supported the strike and asked that “it should not be seen as a measure of coercion but a reasonable demand for an overwhelming and compelling need for justice.”
It added: “The continual failure of some clubs to pay salaries does not mean the coaches are removed from all of this. It is increasingly common to see players, coaches, and staff fail to collect their salaries at the end of the season and it is always the players and staff who are disadvantaged.”
The coach´s association went on to describe as praiseworthy and admirable the decision taken by the AFE: “We may not know the origin of this or who has to fix it, whether it is the government, the LFP or the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), but what is not in doubt is that the people not to blame are the players, who after all are the ones that have to perform.”
Luis Rubiales, President of the AFE, confirmed on Thursday that his members would boycott the first two league games beginning October 20 if agreement with the Spanish League (LFP) was not reached. Rubiales issued the call in the presence of 110 first and second division players at a meeting in Madrid, among them Iker Casillas and Carlos Puyol.
The strike aims to find a collective agreement between the AFE and LFP as Rubiales explained: “It is an unfortunate situation we find ourselves in. I can´t ask any more of the players. We are not asking for more money. We just want our contracts respected with the payment of past, present and future debts and that all players are treated equally whichever team they play for.”
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