Industrial Action - Strikes - In Football! Players Left With No alternative!

Players of Portuguese club Estrela da Amadora were planning to strike on Sunday 28 March. The schedule indicates a home game against Camacha in the Second Division South, but the footballers were refusing to play, because they are still owed back wages.

Players of Portuguese club Estrela da Amadora are planning to strike next Sunday 28 March. The schedule indicates a home game against Camacha in the Second Division South, but the footballers refuse to play, because they are still owed back wages.

The players are right’,

Cardoso, curator of the club, said to press agency Lusa. I sympathize with them.’ The curator was appointed by the court in October 2009 after Estrela da Amadora had requested a suspension of payment. He spoke of a terrible situation, and said he already had to dismiss 25 people due to a lack of money for staff and players.

The last wages that we received date back to November 2009’, explained Sergio Marqus, captain of Estrela da Amadora. We haven’t been paid anything since December 2009. The problems of the players and their families have only aggravated and have now reached an unacceptable level. There are families who don’t have any money for food, others are under the threat of being evicted from their homes because they can’t afford the rent. That’s why we have decided to go on strike, next Sunday. Wednesday we had a meeting with the union (SJPF) to find a solution for our problems.’ Estrela da Amadora is third in the league table, but Marqus said the players are pondering to withdraw their team. The amount of players has decreased, at the moment there are seventeen men in the squad.

According to curator Cardoso some authorities have only worsened the club’s lack of money, for example the football league and the municipality of Amadora. Since January, the league is in possession of a grant worth approximately 27.000 euro. This grant was awarded to Estrela da Amadora by UEFA, but the club has not received it yet. Why? We don’t know. We’ve asked the league for an explanation, but have not received a reply.’

Cardoso states that there is a rescue plan for Estrela da Amadora. If the creditors accept this plan, I think the club can be saved. But the municipality of Amadora (to whom 35 per cent of the total debt is owed) has to co-operate.?

Published 31/03/2010 | Ref: ALAN IRWIN

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