FIFPro news
Colombian players victims of pact between managers
Wednesday 25 January
Some in the football world call it a veto, but others call it a pact between managers. The one thing certain is that, five days after the Colombian professional championship began, the Colombian Association of Professional Footballers (Acolfutpro) has revealed that several players have been the victims of an agreement that prevents their signing up with another Colombian club for having resigned alleging just cause. Some of them have no team and are hoping to sign up abroad.
Failure to pay wages, administrative charges or other payments agreed between teams and players have prompted various players to resign for just cause, says Acolfutpro Executive Director Carlos González Puche, who adds he has the backing of the law - the Constitution and labour legislation.
‘This year we are faced with threats, with this pact. Especially in Real Cartagena, which has tried to prevent players who terminate their contracts for just cause working in Colombia again’, said Puche.
Players like José Nájera and Rafael Pérez are saying so openly, claiming they resigned from Cartagena because of not having received agreed payments, and when they went looking for work in another team, doors were closed to them.
‘I terminated my contract with Real Cartagena for just cause. We were left short of some payments. They were owing me since October and they paid me off a month short. They were still owing me for November and December. And the managers agree that when a player resigns and demands respect for his rights, he is not going to be accepted in another club’, said Nájera.
Rafael Pérez and José Nájera
Nájera and Pérez claim that, under this pact, players either have to return to the club that underpaid them, which of course would let them be loaned out to another team, so their club of origin would profit economically, or have to look for work abroad.
‘That’s the pact they have, and it’s out of your hands, because they don’t want you to play in this country. I don’t want to have problems with the managers, because they gave me an opportunity to play, but to declare myself free is the decision I made and I have to face up to that’, said Nájera.
González Puche said, ‘The pact between managers was arranged last year at the Dimayor (Colombian League) assembly in order to block those players who terminated their contracts with just cause from working. We reported it to Coldeportes (the Colombian Institute for Sport) and to the Ministry of Labour, denouncing this violation of the right to work. It’s crazy that such vetos still exist in the twenty-first century.'
‘Anyone who talks about a pact is lying.’ Dimayor president Ramón Jesurún, however, denied the existence of a pact, saying, ‘If a player terminates his contract, he is free, and if there’s any non-compliance, it’s the courts that have to rule on it. Players who talk about pacts are either lying or are being badly advised.’ For their part, some club presidents consulted last Tuesday during the draw for the League that’s just about to begin, evaded the question or defended themselves.
Colombian daily EL TIEMPO has seen a document in which Coldeportes told the managers in September 2011: ‘We have received information about the making of a pact between the managers of professional football clubs, the purpose of which is to restrict the right to work of players who have terminated their contracts of employment with just cause since June 2011, and to prevent their being contracted by another club until they present evidence that their old club is free of all debt or authorization from their old club, without which requirement the new club cannot make a new contract of employment. In this respect, we wish to remind you that this type of agreement violates human rights... .’
According to González Puche, the case of the defender Hanyer Mosquera, a Quindío player who last year was on loan to Equidad, is conclusive. ‘He was never given severance pay or social benefits, and he terminated his contract. When Millonarios were about to contract him, they told him they could not do because of this agreement, and he had to go off and play for a United States Major League Soccer (MLS) team.’
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The case of Rafael Pérez
‘I was called directly by the president of Millonarios, where any player yearns to be, and I still have hopes of going to that team,’ revealed Pérez, and added, ‘They told me that in order to be contracted I have to get a letter of termination from Real, but I’m not repenting. I am firm about the decision I made, because they failed to pay me.’
Pérez, who lives in Cartagena with his parents, is looking for an opportunity abroad. ‘It’s deplorable that you have to go abroad to play because the managers make life impossible for you if you want to play in this country.’
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The Ministry of Labour has not received allegations
'If we find this kind of discrimination, we have powers and regulations to punish the club.’ And he added, ‘If a player terminates his contract, they have to settle up with him and acknowledge what they owe him, and he can look for another team.’
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From El Tiempo
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