Start of La Liga delayed

As reported earlier today by all major news outlets in Spain and abroad, no agreement was reached between the AFE and LFP in their negotiations, therefore this weekend’s Liga matches have been delayed as the players are on strike. This means that FC Barcelona’s clash with Malaga, originally set for Sunday at 20:00, will be postponed, though when the game will actually be played at the moment remains unclear. Barcelona B’s season opener away at Huesca (originally scheduled for Saturday at 18:00) will also be delayed because of the strike.

After the jump is a translation of the latest report from El Pais.

The Liga de Fútbol Profesional (LFP) and the Asociación de Futbolistas Españoles (AFE) have not reached an agreement to call off the players’ strike, after almost four hours of talks at the LFP headquarters. The two sides will be meet again tomorrow (Saturday) and on Monday. This weekend there will be no League matches, as already seemed inevitable before this morning’s meeting, and now the second matchday is also under threat because of the strike. Luis Rubiales, president of the AFE, and José Luis Astiazarán, president of the League, have each defended their side’s position since the initial plan for a players’ strike was announced by the AFE on August 11. After today’s encounter between Astiazarán and Luis Gil, manager of the AFE, it was announced that there is still no agreement between the two parties, though they recognized the existence of proposals to solve the conflict. The footballers are asking that the clubs pay the almost 50 million euros they owe to the players and that tougher regulations be instituted to help bring order to the world of Spanish football, currently plagued by debt, defaults on wages, and clubs adhering to the Bankruptcy Law.

The aim of this second meeting was to find an approach between the two positions after failing to reach an agreement on Wednesday, August 17th, when both the LFP and the AFE recognized major differences in their approaches. The main disagreements between the two sides lies in the current collective bargaining agreement, that according to the AFE does not contribute sufficient guarantees of payment to the players. The union of footballers requests the development of a new agreement in which the Sports Law will have ascendency over the Bankruptcy Law, the commercial legislation that clubs are currently turning to that permits them to avoid facing their accumulated debt and which freezes the payment of the payrolls of the players. The LFP and the AFE have confirmed that the negotiations will continue tomorrow, starting at 10:15 in the morning. There is a third meeting planned for Monday, August 22, beginning at the same hour.

Source: El Pais