Javier Tebas: "This is a self-serving strike"

The president of La Liga spoke to the media after Monday's Extraordinary General Assembly on Monday to explain the agreements adopted by the clubs and PLCS.

"A lot of harm is going to be done and we want everyone to know that this is an illegal strike that could have huge ramifications," explained Javier Tebas, adding "this is a self-serving strike designed to harm La Liga and therefore illegal".

The president also declared "no-one knows how much damage is being done to the football industry".

Javier Tebas explained that La Liga has "appealed to the CSD (Sports Ministry) and we hope they resolve this in our favour so that the strike does not take effect, at the very least at the professional level. We want the Footballers' Union to abandon the call to strike and if they want, we will sit down with them in a collective manner".

On the AFE, Javier Tebas said "what they are asking for is not in our jurisdiction because they want to modify the Royal Decree", adding "everything that the law entails does not imply an attack on players and coaches. I reiterate that the issues they are worried about related to social guarantees for players in the Segunda División B have to be dealt with in a collective manner within the ambit of the AFE".

Asked whether or not he thought the strike would go through in the end, Tebas said: "You'll have to ask Villar [Ángel María, the president of the RFEF] and Rubiales [Luis, president of the AFE] that, as they’re the ones who organised it. There is a strike here and now because they organised one and therefore they should be the ones who tell us how we’re going to deal with the mess concerning the remanding fixtures".

On the possibility of the RFEF continuing with the strike, Tebas said: "if the National High Court determines that the strike is illegal and the CSD grants our appeal, the referees will have a state mandate and I don’t think they’d be so bold as to not officiate matches, because they know their rights and obligations very well". 

On the subject of the absence of the RFEF president from Monday's Extraordinary General Assembly, to which he had been invited, Tebas pointed out that "rather than being a problem caused from a lack of dialog, it is more a problem of struggling to understand the behaviour of the RFEF president, who only speaks with who he wants, as if he were living in a feudal age, from within a castle or a country manor".

Regarding his relationship with the president of the RFEF, he stated, "these are two different footballing concepts. La Liga is transparent and understands the footballing industry, meanwhile the RFEF has an antiquated, old and feudal concept of the sport that seeks a financial return to ensure that the castle remains well fortified without taking the importance of the footballing industry into account".

Javier Tebas expressed his concern about the financial losses that could be incurred on the back of an AFE and RFEF-led strike. "We estimate that each matchday will cost €50 million, and on top of that, the footballing pools have been suspended for this week, which will result in a financial hit between 7 and 8 million euros", he declared before adding, "neither the AFE or the RFEF are aware of what the footballing industry actually entails, because if they did they wouldn’t have proposed this idea".

The La Liga chief executive revealed to the press that "the AFE is visiting various professional football teams as there are players who do not support the strike", before adding, "a significant number of them don't understand unemployment benefit because they won’t lose any workers’ rights with the Royal Decree and any negotiation process would have to be carried out in a collective manner".

Javier Tebas expressed that "the Union should not forcibly maintain the strike. We are open to discuss anything, but not in terms of the Royal Decree’s collective bargaining, which is beneficial to all parties".

The president also gave his thoughts on how this possible strike is being viewed abroad. "It has caused a surprised and baffled response. Colleagues from other leagues are asking how it can be that after fighting for years for the centralised sale of television rights, the players are now planning to strike against it".