{"id":680,"date":"2023-09-11T06:37:18","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T06:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.www.webpressglobal.com\/?p=680"},"modified":"2023-09-11T06:37:18","modified_gmt":"2023-09-11T06:37:18","slug":"with-sexism-in-spanish-soccer-being-scrutinized-female-players-strike-for-higher-league-wages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webpressglobal.com\/sports\/with-sexism-in-spanish-soccer-being-scrutinized-female-players-strike-for-higher-league-wages\/","title":{"rendered":"With Sexism In Spanish Soccer Being Scrutinized, Female Players Strike For Higher League Wages"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BARCELONA, Spain\u00a0 \u2014 First, Spain\u2019s Women\u2019s World Cup winners said they would no longer play for their country<\/span>\u00a0as they fight sexism in the nation\u2019s soccer federation. Now, Spain\u2019s women\u2019s league players\u00a0are on strike<\/span>\u00a0and pushing for what they call a dignified minimum wage.<\/p>\n

The Liga F \u2014 Spain\u2019s women\u2019s league \u2014 was supposed to kick off its second season on Friday, but instead its players are striking for the first two rounds of games.<\/p>\n

The strike comes with the nation immersed in the scandal caused by soccer federation president\u00a0Luis Rubiales when he kissed a Spain player<\/span> on the lips without her consent during the Aug. 20 awards ceremony in Sydney, Australia after Spain had beaten England in the final.<\/p>\n

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Rubiales\u2019 conduct caused outrage in Spain. It also has drawn attention away from the greatest achievement in the history of Spanish women\u2019s soccer<\/span>, which has undergone spectacular growth over the last decade but still is fighting for a pay raise that, if granted, would still be just a fraction of what\u2019s paid in the men\u2019s La Liga.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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For Keka Vega, a former player representing the AFE player\u2019s union, the widespread condemnation of Rubiales in Spain \u2014 and abroad \u2014 has provided an ideal scenario for players\u2019 quest for a fairer shake.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur players consider that after the Women\u2019s World Cup title and the worldwide attention that women\u2019s soccer has received it was a good moment to stand up, fight for their workers\u2019 rights, and demand that the sport received the support it needs to truly develop,\u201d Vega told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMaybe the league does not consider this to be the best timing, but the players have considered that it was key.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Liga F started as Spain\u2019s first fully professional women\u2019s league last season. Its executives are now concerned that the strike could end up tarnishing its image and lead to fans, and potential sponsors, associating the labor dispute with the Rubiales controversy.<\/p>\n

Liga F chief executive Pedro Vilches said that strike will hurt the league just when it should be taking advantage of the increased interest in women\u2019s soccer. To start with, missing the first two rounds will cost clubs between 800,000 to 1 million euros ($857,00-$1 million), he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning the Women\u2019s World Cup was an extraordinary success, which unfortunately practically nobody is talking about in Spain or the rest of the world because we are only talking about the situation of Luis Rubiales,\u201d Vilches told the AP. \u201cAnd it is true that all the focus is on the Liga F, but we have been honest and offered the maximum that we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vilches said that Spanish and international companies which have shown interest in becoming new sponsors of the league are concerned with the turmoil caused by Rubiales. And he fears that could be compounded by the strike.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere are companies . . . that have become hesitant in negotiations because they don\u2019t want to associated with this type of scandal,\u201d Vilches said. \u201cAnd the strike does not help.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The league, led by former player and president Beatriz \u00c1lvarez, immediately demanded the resignation of Rubiales for his conduct at the Women\u2019s World Cup final, when he also grabbed his crotch in a lewd victory gesture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were one of the first (sports bodies) to denounce (Rubiales), and our president has backed that up by speaking out as a question of her convictions,\u201d Vilches said. \u201cWe are a women\u2019s league . . . and of course we don\u2019t want to look the other way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The creation of a women\u2019s league independent from the federation was a landmark moment for women\u2019s sports in the soccer-crazed country. That struggle has included other gains such as having games televised, more attention from the local sports media, and the all-powerful Real Madrid finally fielding a women\u2019s team in 2020.<\/p>\n

Vilches argued that only Barcelona, which has won the last four domestic titles, two of the last three Champions Leagues, and has two-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner Alexia Putellas, has a women\u2019s team that is economically sustainable.<\/p>\n

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He said the rest are losing money for their clubs despite the growth in revenues, which reached 6 million euros ($6.4 million) for the league last season. The league said that its four clubs that only field women\u2019s teams, and thus have no men\u2019s team to also bring in money, also depend on government support.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Vilches also said that the league estimates that any increase to the minimum wage would lead to increases up the pay scale.<\/p>\n

But Vega, the players\u2019 union representative, said that the unions were convinced that the clubs pay higher salaries given the extra revenues sure to come.<\/p>\n

In addition to typical living expense, she said: \u201cYou have to eat well, you have to carry out specific medical treatments if you are injured, and do all that on 16,000 euros.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rubiales, who was already temporarily suspended by FIFA, was formally\u00a0accused by Spanish state prosecutors of sexual assault and coercion<\/span>\u00a0on Friday. Now his fate is in the hands of a judge, who will decide whether the case should be investigated or shelved.<\/p>\n

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Spain\u2019s national team players have said they won\u2019t play again for their country \u201cif the present leadership remains in charge.\u201d They have yet to say if they will return after Rubiales was suspended and their unpopular coach was fired<\/span>\u00a0last week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Spain is scheduled to start the Women\u2019s Nations League on Sept. 22.<\/p>\n

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BARCELONA, Spain\u00a0 \u2014 First, Spain\u2019s Women\u2019s World Cup winners said they would no longer play for their country\u00a0as they fight sexism in the nation\u2019s soccer federation. Now, Spain\u2019s women\u2019s league players\u00a0are on strike\u00a0and pushing for what they call a dignified minimum wage. The Liga F \u2014 Spain\u2019s women\u2019s league \u2014 was supposed to kick off […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[186],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webpressglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webpressglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webpressglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webpressglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webpressglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.webpressglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":683,"href":"https:\/\/www.webpressglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions\/683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webpressglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webpressglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webpressglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webpressglobal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}