David Jiménez: “We have almost the same doubts; we are concerned that there is no talk of aid to clubs”

The Royal Spanish Football Federation has met today with the Territories to discuss the start of the 2020-21 season in non-professional football: Second B and Third Division, both male, First and Second Female and futsal, male and female . After two hours of meeting, the conclusion is that they must be cautious and wait for the Autonomous Communities to clarify when it is sanitary safe to start the new campaign. It has also been confirmed that it will not be postponed until 2021, as had been rumored. Even so, the statement has not been without controversy due to the scarcity of responses and the uncertain future that is on the horizon. David Jiménez, as president of ProLiga, has attended AS to give the vision of the union and a significant number of clubs of the different categories.

What did you think of the Federation statement?

There is one thing that is quite obvious. On August 10, suddenly saying that we have to have protocols endorsed by the health authorities at the national level or at the Autonomous Community level is something that we all already knew, it is not a surprise. It is obvious that it was needed, it was understood for a long time. From there, the responsibility of the Third is transferred to the Territories to draw up a protocol agreed with the Communities. The state part will be managed by the FEF with the CSD and the Ministry of Health. What we perceive is that there is nothing new. The clubs are still wondering when to start. We are especially concerned that the initiatives or aid are not nuanced so that the clubs can comply with the protocols “.

What do the clubs think about the measure denied by the Federation to start the season in 2021?

We made a joint communication with the LNFS, the Association of Women's Clubs and us ProLiga. The RFEF says that it has never thought about it, although we believed that it was one of the options and we asked to participate in decisions of that caliber. If it is decided to suspend until January, I think that the organizations defending the clubs should participate in that debate. Given this possibility, we wanted to anticipate so that they could count on us. Clubs are very concerned about not knowing when competitions start. They do not know whether to do the federative licenses, whether to start training … At the moment in which training begins, which many clubs are already doing, they are incurring costs. Imagine a club that has to pay with its resources to an entire squad for three months without competing. They are very worried. They don't really know what to do. There are some who do not want to start work until the dates are known.

It could also happen that, given the uncertainty, the players would go to other countries …

There are two assumptions there: the clubs that have already made the employment contracts, that are already training and are paying the footballers to develop their activity. There it could happen that they had to pay without competing. On the other hand, there are the clubs that as long as they do not know when they are going to start, they will not make the contracts. There would be players who, even if they had signed, would look for other alternatives …

Another problem is the health tests. For example, in the Third Playoff there was no test between the semifinals and the final … Everything would depend on the pandemic.

We are very concerned and we already said it from minute 1. We must establish a protocol that guarantees the health of the players as much as possible and that takes into account the context of non-professional football. Here the players work, many of them do not make a living from football. It is essential to establish the protocol, the guarantees and that there is aid so that the clubs can apply it. The costs of passing the tests as in professional football are unimaginable. The Second B and Third clubs have to be helped. At the moment that has not been specified …

Finally, the repechage will not be played and four more clubs are promoted. What do you think there are 102 teams?

The fact that the four clubs have been promoted in the end is a joy because they have been working hard throughout the year. There we have nothing to say. But it is true that when you have a category with 102 teams, there are still concerns that there were because it is very important to maintain the level of the category. That said, of course the clubs are wondering what the format of the competition will be like, that is, there was talk around that they were going to make smaller groups in Second B, but it is not written. In the end, these are things that we are saying out loud but we don't really know what the format of the competition is going to be like. We are on August 10 and what worried us this past weekend is that a calendar was not established, the format of the competitions was not there, a protocol is not established, it is not known how the clubs will be helped to apply the protocol.

The date is still more complicated to set. For now, the format is not known either.

The decision of the federation is not easy, we are talking about a very complex situation that we have not experienced before. Obviously, if the pandemic, God forbid, evolves in a negative way, we will all have to be aware that we must take the measures that must be taken to preserve health. As of August 10 there are things that should be closed. Having a protocol worked out with the health authorities and with the CSD, that had to be there. And the bases of the competition: how are you going to compete, how are the competitions going to be, because it also had to be there. Another thing is to set the start of the calendar because perhaps it is more difficult due to the development of the pandemic, but there are things that at this point, the teams would have to know how the competition is going to be because that way they can plan accordingly.

Do you have an idea when the decision could be made?

The truth is that we do not know and, in fact, we would like to know. What we offer ourselves as well as the Association of Women's Clubs to the National Futsal League is to work hand in hand with them and surely working as a team and that they will have the associations that represent the majority of the clubs. Right now the information we have is practically that of the media because we have not been able to participate in the negotiations.

There was talk of September 26 as the start date. It is understood that it will no longer start on that date …

The Federation itself announced it from the Competition and that is why many Second B teams have started training. They have also formed the contracts and have expenses already. I wish that date could be reached, but the protocol still has to be done.

What does ProLiga ask of the RFEF?

We ask that the protocol be developed as soon as possible, that they speed up development and be endorsed by the health authorities. It is very important to define what aid they are going to launch so that the clubs can comply with the protocols. The structure and format of the competition must also be finalized, so that the clubs can prepare. In the end, we have almost the same doubts as yesterday. I think our request for them to count on us is logical.