Players Going on Strike is the Latest Fashion

By: Inara | April 19th, 2008

Players from Boavista have announced that they will be on strike this weekend due to the fact that their salaries are two months overdue.

The Porto based club, currently 10th in the BWIN Liga, know that a win may allow them to move into eighth, but according to the players’ union, the Boavista squad will not be showing up for their game against Nacional Madeira on Sunday.

The players are demanding their salaries from February and March, as well as 60% of their December salary.

Boavista’s director, Alvara Braga Junio, hopes to have this dispute somehow resolved before Sunday afternoon so that the game can continue as scheduled, but now that the club’s new investor has been arrested by the Portuguese police, the matter has grown more complicated.

This incident is only the latest in a long line of clubs failing to pay wages on time. Spanish side Levante are in even more of a pickle - not only are they likely to be relegated, but their players haven’t been paid in full for several months now. Levante have tried to stem the problem by attempting to sell their stadium, but they ran into unforeseen delays. They then tried to get a loan from the city council that would help tide them over, but that too didn’t work out. The players have had enough and plan to go on strike the weekend of April 26-27.

Unfortunately, Levante’s problems also affect other teams in the Spanish topflight. While Levante are at the bottom of the table, their opponents on the weekend of their planned strike, Recreativo Huelva, are the team in the last safety position above the relegation zone, and only four points behind Real Betis. If Levante don’t show up for their match, Recreativo Huelva will get three easy points while Betis, who play Villareal that same day, will most likely lose their match and be in danger of hugging the relegation zone themselves.

A club has to be really mucked up when they get into the position of not being able to pay their players. When you consider the millions that these clubs earn every year and the careless way finances are managed, it just boggles my mind. What is this, Monopoly? These players have families to support and bills to pay, so it’s not a joke. And yet they still showed up for practices and played their hearts out during games, despite being unpaid for so many months. That’s a lot more loyalty and patience than I’d ever show. I’d probably quit my job if my boss didn’t pay me for two weeks. Forget two months.