Top Spanish leagues look set to strike
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Shanghai Daily, August 18, 2011
Talks between the Spanish football league (LFP) and the Spanish players' union (AFE) yesterday failed to avert the strike action called for the start of the 2011-12 season this weekend.
"We haven't reached any kind of agreement," LFP president Jose Luis Astiazaran, whose organization represents the 42 professional clubs in the top two divisions, said after the first meeting since the strike was invoked last week.
"The AFE have dug their heels in. There are important differences but we will have to continue moving forward."
The Union have called a strike for the first two rounds of matches in the top two leagues, which are scheduled to kick off on Saturday. They are demanding greater protection for players' wages at clubs that have gone into financial administration.
The union has said at the end of last season around 50 million euros (US$72 million) was owed to 200 players, and that a proposed emergency fund of 40 million euros put forward by the LFP was not enough.
Astiazaran continued: "We are in agreement on 80 percent of the questions and it's a shame that for 20 percent we have found ourselves in this situation."
Representing the AFE, Luis Gil said: "The league doesn't want to bridge the gap. The biggest problem is that the players want guarantees they are going to get paid because there are more than 200 who are owed money.
Neither Barcelona or Real Madrid, which were to face off in the second leg of the Spanish Super Cup at the Nou Camp late yesterday, were prepared to make an official comment on the strike.
Valencia president Manuel Llorente said: "It's a decision by the players and I don't think it is adequate. There are other ways to resolve this. What the AFE is asking is impossible. It is going to be a very difficult negotiation."
A growing number of Spanish clubs have slipped into financial difficulties recently.
