Planned strike by Spanish soccer players suspended

A potential strike by top Spanish soccer players has been suspended after a petition filed by the league (LFP) against planned action by the players' union (AFE) was upheld by the High Court on Thursday.

The strike threatened to disrupt the final two game days in La Liga and the King's Cup final at the end of the month, because the AFE was unhappy with a new law mandating collective bargaining for the sale of television rights.

That provoked a challenge by the LFP, which argued the action was illegal.

The national soccer federation (RFEF) is also unhappy with the law but, after Thursday's court ruling, it reversed its decision to suspend competition indefinitely across the Spanish soccer league starting Saturday.

"Taking into account the order made by the high court today, the Spanish football federation lifts the [suspension] measure ... so the competitions can be played according to the schedule and times originally planned," the federation said on its website.

La Liga leader Barcelona can now visit Atlético Madrid on Sunday. A win for the Catalan club would secure it a fifth title in seven years.

The new TV law, approved last month and backed by the LFP, will replace the current system, under which rights are marketed by individual clubs. All of Europe’s other top leagues use collective bargaining.

The measure aims to share cash more fairly among teams, starting with the 2016–17 season, and remove some of the weighting toward the richest and most successful clubs such as Real Madrid and Barca.

The AFE supports the idea of collective bargaining but is less than pleased with the share of cash set aside for lower division clubs.

The RFEF believes the law will rob the federation of powers and is opposed to what it says are plans to use money from soccer to fund other sports.

Sports Minister José Ignacio Wert said he was hopeful the government and league on one side and the union and the federation on the other would be able to settle their differences.

"We have worked actively with the AFE over the past two days, and as a result there has been a considerable approximation of positions," he told reporters. "We believe there is no insuperable obstacle to an agreement on all the issues that concern the union, and in the same spirit, we hope to overcome any differences with the federation."

Reuters