Players throughout the Spanish top-flight are coming together during Gameweek 9 in an unprecedented protest against La Liga and the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF).
Viewers tuning in to any La Liga fixture this weekend will see what appears to be a head-scratching kick off. Instead of getting the game underway upon the referee’s opening whistle, footballers are refusing to play for the first 15 seconds of the game.
Before Espanyol defeated Real Oviedo 2–0 on Friday night, the two clubs became the first participants of the league-wide protest. Both sides remained still as the early seconds of the clash ticked away before they got going at the Estadio Carlos Tartiere.
Teams across the Spanish top-flight are expected to follow suit all weekend long to demonstrate their opposition to a recent controversial decision supported by La Liga president Javier Tebas, along with the RFEF and UEFA.
Why Real Madrid, La Liga Players Are Protesting During Gameweek 9
La Liga players have all agreed to protest throughout the weekend in opposition to Barcelona and Villarreal’s overseas fixture. The domestic clash is set to unfold at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami instead of the Estadio de la Cerámica.
Moving the game to a neutral site in the United States is a historic first; no European top-flight league match has ever unfolded on U.S. soil. Yet the plans, approved by the RFEF and UEFA, have been met with harsh backlash.
The Spanish Footballers’ Association (AFE) organized a demonstration to “protest symbolically as a demand for the lack of transparency, dialogue and coherence of LALIGA, regarding the possibility of playing a competition match in the United States.”
The full statement from the players’ union calls into question the competitive integrity of moving an away match for Barcelona to a neutral venue in the United States, where the crowd will likely be heavily in favor of the Catalans.
It also demands all information regarding the project be shared so the AFE can be sure the “needs and concerns of the footballers are addressed.”
Real Madrid previously spoke out against the match and is expected to be one of the clubs participating in this weekend’s protest. Barcelona and Villarreal have been kept out of the plans to “avoid the protest action being interpreted as a possible measure against any club.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Why Real Madrid, La Liga Players Are Protesting This Weekend.