LaLiga to take Spanish players union to court over their alleged 15 second ‘strike’

October 24 – In a stunning escalation, football in Spain looks like it is on set for outright civil war after La Liga announced plans to take the Spanish players union (AFE) to court, claiming last weekend’s coordinated player protests amounted to an “illegal strike”.

The dispute stems from the cancelled Miami match between Villarreal and Barcelona, a project for now that is dead, but the fallout is digging deep into the heart of Spanish football.

According to Mundo Deportivo, La Liga president Javier Tebas, the main driver of the proposed Miami match, informed AFE chief David Aganzo that players’ 15-second, standing still before kick-off protests, were a breach of labour law. Aganzo flatly rejects that idea, describing the gesture as a symbolic act against “a lack of transparency”.

“We simply made a gesture that had nothing to do with a strike,” Aganzo said after a tense meeting. “According to him, it will be resolved in court. He made it very clear that a court will decide.”

But why would you take the players to court when they are the product that drives the league? Without them, there is no spectacle, no broadcast deal, no global brand. Yet, rather than bridge the growing divide, La Liga appears intent on deepening it.

Aganzo maintains that the union’s grievance lies in being shut out of major decisions that directly affect players’ working conditions. “This meeting should have been held much earlier,” he said. “These projects require conversation with everyone, with maximum transparency.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of this spiralling controversy, Villarreal CEO Fernando Roig Negueroles launched a blistering attack on Real Madrid and Florentino Pérez, blaming them for the Miami plan’s demise. “Real Madrid seems to be going against everyone,” he told Radio Marca. “They lose legitimacy because they protest absolutely everything — even what they once approved.”

What began as an attempt to globalise La Liga has turned into a civil war between its own stakeholders, and now before the Spanish courts involved.

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