Australia’s PFA meets with its Spanish counterpart

PFA Chief Executive Brendan Schwab meets with Luis Manuel Rubiales, President, and the General Secretary, XaviOliva of the Asociación de FutbolistasEspañoles (the Spanish PFA).

This week PFA Chief Executive Brendan Schwab met with Luis Manuel Rubiales, President, and the General Secretary, XaviOliva of the Asociación de FutbolistasEspañoles (the Spanish PFA).

Although the Spanish league is one of the premier leagues on the planet, the similarities confronting footballers and the associations representing players are greater than might be imagined.

The AFE has recently been negotiating with the Spanish football league in an attempt to deliver a new collective bargaining contract and a greater degree of contract security for its members.

In the last two years, 22 of the 42 clubs from the professional leagues have been in administration at one time or another. This has created a situation where some two hundred players were owed almost 60 million euros.

The AFE has been trying to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement with the League in order to both ensure that these moneys owed to players are paid and to ensure this does not happen again. It wants league officials to create a special fund to protect players’ salaries. It also wants to introduce a clause that would allow a player to break his contract if he isn’t paid for three straight months.

Ultimately the AFE found that the only way to get the League and clubs to act to address these issues was a strike which led to the postponement of the opening round of matches in La Liga.

The importance placed on the protection of the entitlements of players and making sure that clubs and the league ensure that contracts are enforced is an issue confronting both for the PFA and the AFE.

Learning from the experiences of the AFE in addressing the issues of contract security, collective bargaining and the proper enforcement of contracts will be critical in developing and addressing Australian player issues in the next collective bargaining agreement for the A- League.

Australia’s PFA meets with its Spanish counterpart

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.

Supporting The Players

Building The Game

The PFA

Australia’s PFA meets with its Spanish counterpart

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging​.

Supporting The Players

Building The Game

The PFA

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.