Four days before it is scheduled to start, the status of Spanish basketball's Copa del Rey "is up in the air due to the strike" called by the players' association (ABP), according to Darío Ojeda of EL CONFIDENCIAL. The Spanish Basketball League (ACB) and the teams "are saying the Copa del Rey will be played," while the players, via the ABP, "are saying the strike is irrevocable unless the ACB accepts their demands." There is still time to reach an agreement, but the ACB and ABP's positions "are far apart." The "reason for this is the social fund." The ABP put on the table six demands, and the ACB "accepted five." The sixth, this fund, "has provoked the schism." ABP President Alfonso Reyes said, "Without the fund, there is no ABP." ACB Secretary General Esther Quraltó said, "The social fund is the key to everything." The fund "is the principal source of financing for the ABP, which also receives revenue from the welfare fund, a little more" than €100,000 ($122,500) per year which is also paid for by the ACB (EL CONFIDENCIAL, 2/11).
