la liga players could go on strike just before el classico

Just came across this article...Top teams from la liga could go on strike to help lower division teams to get their money.

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Panic stations. The eagerly-awaited return clasico between Real Madrid and Barcelona on Saturday April 10 is at risk because of a possible strike of Spanish league footballers. This is not the first time the Asociacin de Futbolistas Espaoles has raised such a threat in support of player grievances and, given the games perpetual financial turmoil, it will not be the last.

Clearly, by picking the weekend of April 10/11 the union has found a target date which, it hopes, will concentrate minds. Spanish and Italian league players are among the most militant in Europe. This may surprise outsiders, considering these are the two leagues whose pay rates compete with the Premier League at the highest level.

Appearances, however, are deceptive.

When players in Italy and Spain threaten to take, or even take concerted industrial action the cause is not one which sees the likes of Del Piero and Francesco Totti or Iker Casillas and Leo Messi claiming higher wages themselves. Quite the opposite. The superstars line up in support of fellow footballers, usually in the lower divisions, who have gone weeks, maybe months, without being paid themselves.

The AFE claims that only 15 per cent of clubs in the lower divisions in Spain are up-to-date with wages payments. Remember the problems with Portsmouth in the Premier League earlier this season? The players were not being paid on time. But did any of their colleagues in other clubs seek to force the issue through industrial action? They did not.

Certainly the Professional Footballers Association worked hard to try to resolve matters which were, perhaps, a more rational way of moving forward in the derided English context. But perhaps the Premier League model is not as reckless as critics, particularly within UEFA, claim. The problem in Spain and Italy is that clubs football/financial models do not fall under similar corporate rigor as clubs in England.

In the case of Portsmouth, a formal path was evident by which the clubs inability to sustain its outgoings could be regulated and controlled all the way down into administration. The foresight of the PFA also means that player's contracts are virtually ring-fenced.

Footballers elsewhere do not benefit from such good fortune. The smaller Spanish clubs are notorious for delayed wage payments and only when the superstars become involved do the governing bodies start to sit up and seek solutions, albeit short-term ones. Such solidarity of purpose is, at the least, impressive.

Real Madrid's club captain Raul Gonzalez has long been on record as explaining the reasoning. As he said the last time a strike threat was raised: 'We all started in junior football, we all depend on football for our livelihood. Some of us have been very fortunate but that does not mean we forget our roots. Football is not only about the Real Madrid's and Barcelona's.'


Source: http://www.leadersinfootball.com/column/141/