By Mark Baber
October 20 – FIFPro Division America Secretary General David Paniagua has announced that FIFPro will be asking South American confederation Conmebol tomorrow to exclude clubs that are in debt to their players from its competitions, including the Copa Libertadores de América and the Copa Sudamericana.
Paniagua made the announcement on La Red radio station whilst on a visit to Ecuador saying: “What we are trying to achieve, and this is a fundamental topic that we are going to discuss with CONMEBOL, for example, is that a club that is in debt cannot participate in either the Libertadores or the Sudamericana.”
Paniagua was in Quito to investigate the financial crisis facing most Ecuadorian clubs, which are mirrored in Paniagua’s home country of Bolivia.
According to Paniagua: “These measures are going to oblige clubs to get themselves organised and offer only what they really can comply with. We can’t allow the problem to become one for each individual association or union. If CONMEBOL doesn’t intervene, it’s going to be very difficult to establish financial fair play.”
CONMEBOL has recognized FIFpro, which brings together some 65,000 players in the world, as the legitimate representative of the players.
The Ecuadorian Ministry of Labour Relations has in recent days fined the 12 teams contesting the professional championship for unpaid wages, lack of internal regulations and contributions to social security. The economic sanctions, which also fell on nine teams in the second division, ranged from $3,400 to $6,800 and follow a players strike in July.
In Bolivia, players have faced similar problems, with a promised strike at The Strongest and Real Potosi only averted this weekend by owners promises of early payment and teams such as Blooming facing similar problems.
Speaking late last week, in his capacity as General Secretary of the Bolivian Footballers’ Union (FABO), Paniagua said the pay dispute at Sport Boys would be referred to the Dispute Resolution Tribunal, subject to the players not having been being paid by today, as the Tribunal had itself resumed work after its own members had finally received their salaries.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734881994labto1734881994ofdlr1734881994owedi1734881994sni@r1734881994ebab.1734881994kram1734881994