Spanish Footballers' Association (AFE) President Luis Rubiales said on Friday that his organization called the Spanish Football League (LFP) and Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) to "get together to try avoid the strike called for May 16," according to the EFE. Rubiales: "We have called the LFP and the RFEF to an act of reconciliation. We believe we can reach an agreement if we are all heard and there is a consensus. [The agreement] gives everything to [LFP President Javier] Tebas and leaves the rest of us in a very bad place. It hurts the players a lot in labor rights." He added, "It is not just money. ... We have our hand outstretched for dialogue, but we have had to defend ourselves because we have been passed over on aspects that affect the collective" (EFE, 5/8). In L.A., Kevin Baxter reported Real Madrid vs. Barcelona "might be only the second-biggest rivalry in Spanish sport these days." Last week the RFEF and the AFE promised to "shut down" Spanish football beginning May 16. The LFP "immediately took legal action to prevent the strike." Lower-tier league play would also be affected by a strike, with the RFEF saying that "more than 600,000 athletes and 30,000 matches could be impacted." So it was not "long before the dispute got personal." Tebas said that the threatened walkout was "part of a vendetta" on the part of RFEF President Ángel María Villar against Spanish Superior Sports Council (CSD) President Miguel Cardenal. What makes the standoff "truly bizarre" is the fact most people involved in Spanish football "agree with much of the new law." It was "unclear Saturday whether the RFEF really intended to exercise the nuclear option and strike or whether the saber-rattling was simply intended to give it influence in how the new law is implemented." Hundreds of millions of dollars "also are at stake" -- not including the $56M the LFP says it will lose for each canceled matchday. If the players walk, "it would bring a premature and unsatisfying end to tight races for both the league title and the Golden Boot award" (L.A. TIMES, 5/9).
