MADRID, 29 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The unions FUTPRO and Futbolistas ON have denounced the Association of Spanish Soccer Players (AFE) after receiving complaints from numerous players who have seen their application for the End-of-Career Fund rejected and with the aim of fulfilling their fundamental rights, they report in a joint statement.
The End of Career Fund has been in force since 2016 and it is an economic aid that aims to support the group of professional soccer players after leaving their professional activity. This economic amount comes from the audiovisual rights generated by all Spanish soccer players.
The unions FUTPRO and Futbolistas ON also demanded the “immediate cessation” of the requirement of affiliation to AFE so that professional soccer players can apply for the End of Career Fund, “in equal conditions for men”.
“And it is that, with respect to professional soccer players, there is a double violation of fundamental rights: not only a violation of their fundamental right to freedom of association, by restricting the End of Career Fund to those affiliated with AFE, but they are discriminated against for the fact of being women since while any male soccer player with a license in the 1st Division, 2nd Division A, as well as 1st, 2nd, 3rd RFEF category can apply for said Fund, only female soccer players affiliated with AFE can have right to it,” they stressed.
Likewise, they recalled that “it is not the first time” that the group of soccer players must assert their right not to see their freedom of affiliation limited. In 2018, Futbolistas ON sued AFE on its behalf for this same reason, demanding that it not condition participation in the End-of-Career Fund on affiliation to its association.
For both unions, their counterpart AFE “persists in a conduct that has already been declared unconstitutional, since it requires affiliation for the enjoyment of a right of the entire group of soccer players, constituting an act of pressure for free affiliation without conditions.” “In this case, it also incurs serious discriminatory conduct on the basis of sex since it only requires AFE affiliation from professional women soccer players,” they add.
For all this, and after the silence on the part of AFE upon receiving the prior requirements in the cessation of their conduct, from FUTPRO and Futbolistas ON they have filed legal actions “in protection of the fundamental rights violated of the soccer players”.