Almost three months after the employers and the unions FutPro, Futbolistas ON and Comisiones Obreras signed this Monday in Madrid the new text that will regulate labor relations between the clubs and the footballers of the only female professional competition in Spain. “This is still a new milestone on the path towards the professionalization of women’s football that began in 2022,” said the president of the association, Beatriz Álvarez, at the League F headquarters. “We know what society we live in, we know what it has cost us to get here. If we look back, we see, added the leader, a framework that has been signed today without the support of the Association of Spanish Footballers (AFE) and UGT.
Both Álvarez and Amanda Gutiérrez, president of FutPro – the majority union – have highlighted the improvements in aspects of conciliation and gender, such as the mandate for clubs to establish nurseries and breastfeeding rooms during training and matches when one of their players has been mother. “This agreement at a social level is brilliant and could also be applied to men. We talk about many points that are always attributed to women, but that could also be implemented in men’s sports,” Álvarez defended. The text maintains the automatic renewal of the contract for one more year for footballers who become pregnant and reinforces two fundamental issues for the unions: the day and a half of weekly rest that athletes must have and the request to the clubs to Trips of more than three hours are made by AVE or plane to guarantee a better rest.
The new framework, whose next step is publication in the Official State Gazettewill last from July 1 to July 30, 2026, that is, this academic year and the next. The text sets a remuneration for this season of 22,500 euros – 23,500 next season – for the players in the F League and for those in the reserve team who play 10 games or are called up for 12 games. In addition, it also creates a seniority bonus worth 800 euros per year – plus the corresponding update to the CPI – for footballers who have been with their club for at least three years and increases compensation in the event of disability or death.
The players and the employers reached an agreement in September 2023 to raise the minimum salary from the 16,000 euros per year set in the previous agreement to the new amounts. In that negotiation, the footballers gave up a lot, accepting the offer from League F when the unions that represent them asked that the clubs pay at least 30,000 gross euros this season and for the next they requested around 32,500. “On the union side, one of the moments in which we lost the most was the salary. It even led us to strike and it was very complicated to manage,” acknowledged Álvarez, who added that it is one of the pending issues to improve in 2026.
The agreement agreed after more than a year of negotiations also improves the sexual harassment protocol, which has been updated with the and which has caused the signing to be delayed almost three months since the employers and unions announced the agreement. The text shortens deadlines, creates a psychological assistance unit for the player who denounces and requires the establishment of an independent investigative commission. “It is a protocol that I think can protect the soccer players more, because until now we had many problems for them to dare to report. In fact, we continue to have many problems so that they dare to report,” Álvarez has been sincere.
A fundamental aspect that the new framework eliminates is the so-called compensation list, in which – foreigners were excluded – they had to pay for the training rights of the U23 footballers who were ending their contracts and which caused several footballers. The text creates a mechanism compensation system that transparently regulates the formula for setting the amounts to be paid for training rights. 50% of that money must also be allocated to the youth team to promote the development of women’s football,
Both the AFE and UGT did not sign the text as they disagreed with several points, such as the new compensation system – they believe that the amounts to be paid may be excessively high compared to the salaries of the footballers – or article 2, which extends the agreement to the reserve team players who play 10 games or are called up 12 times with the first team during the season. Both unions defended that the conditions for the second team players should be maintained in subsequent years and not only during the course in which they play with the first team. The AFE and UGT affirm that 30% of the athletes will be harmed and presented a letter to the Ministry of Labor in November to challenge the agreement, considering that point 2 is contrary to Spanish labor legislation.
