‘Strike in Spain is crucial for women’s game everywhere’
Sweden star Asllani is behind industrial action over fair-pay deal, she tells Molly Mcelwee
History could be made in Spain this week, and though it was not on Kosovare Asllani’s radar before July, she is happy to be a part of it. The top-division clubs in Spanish women’s football have until tomorrow to come to an agreement with the players on the conditions for the first leaguewide central contracts.
The journey to this point has not been not easy. As a new signing this season for Madrid-based CD Tacon, Sweden striker Asllani joined just as her new Primera Iberdrola peers began playing hardball with their clubs in negotiations. It took almost the entire 200-player roster boycotting all eight league matches one weekend in November to get the clubs back to the table in a pay dispute that has dragged on for more than a year.
“They know more than I know, since I haven’t been in Spain for that long,” Asllani says of the player strike she participated in, which brought women’s football to a standstill. “So I trust that [the players’ association] made the right decision. That we all stand together united, it’s so important because this is not just about some teams or one league, it’s about women’s football in the world.”
Last season, 60,739 fans attended a league game between Barcelona and Atletico Madrid (the Women’s Super League record is 38,262). And yet the Spanish players’ association spent 14 months grappling with the Association of Women’s Football Clubs (ACFF) on issues such as minimum wages and maternity, injury and holiday pay in the collective bargaining agreements they are still trying to finalise.
As the league is still not entirely full-time, the players’ biggest gripe was part-time salaries, as they tried to protect the lowest-paid. The association wanted them to be at least 75 per cent of the full-time minimum wage, which has been set at €16,000 (£13,600) – the average wage in Spain is about €23,000. But clubs said that was unaffordable, insisting it should be 50 per cent, or €8,000. The league’s top earners meanwhile, like Barcelona’s Dutch star Lieke Martens, are reportedly earning close to €200,000.
Last month, a day after the strike, the clubs seemed to cede on their position as the players suspended the boycott. But the strike could resume tomorrow if clubs are unable find the estimated €1.6million to meet the salary minimum requirements. A final meeting was arranged for today.
Asllani says sticking up for part-time players is important for the league’s development. “That’s how the level is going to grow. If all the younger, part-time players can put all of their energy into training, being able to be there every day.”
Asllani, 30, had her pick of clubs to join this season. “I could probably have played Champions League football, been able to fight for titles,” she says. After Sweden’s third-place finish at the World Cup in France, and then making shortlist for the Ballon d’or this year, you would be hard-pressed to argue with the woman they call the “Female Zlatan”. Why then did the former Manchester City and Paris St-germain midfielder join CD Tacon, a newcomer to Spain’s top division? To be the first galactica, as the first signing for a club who will next season become Real Madrid.
Tacon are a struggling team now, but next summer they will be renamed and wear the famed badge of the most successful European club in history, as Real decided to make their first foray into women’s football, to the tune of a £500,000 takeover in June.
“This was a unique possibility to build a team from the ground, and be one of the cornerstones of what, long-term, will be a very successful team,” Asllani says. Right now though, they are 11th of 16 teams and got thrashed 9-1 in what was dubbed the first women’s El Clasico in September.
“It’s not fair to compare that game with a team that was built one month before the game,” she says of the result, jumping to the defence of her newly formed team. “I wouldn’t count it as a Clasico
– next year it will be a Clasico. But there’s not another team on the planet that I would want to beat more than Barcelona, you still feel that rivalry. I’ll feel it even more next year when we can put on the Real Madrid jersey. We’ll be ready for that moment.”
Kosovare Asllani was speaking at the Team Visa Summit. To find out more, visit visa.co.uk