Guatemalan club owes 17 players up to four months' wages

• Seventeen footballers are owed up to four months' wages by Guatemalan side Xinabajul-Huehue

• There is an ongoing legal conflict between the club, Liga Nacional and Guatemalan Football Association

• "The players can rely on their union," says Carlos Figueroa, executive director of Guatemalan player union Sifupgua

Seventeen footballers are owed up to four months of their salaries from the 2024/25 season by Guatemalan club Xinabajul-Huehue.

While the players' contracts with the club expired at the end of last season and they have started the 2025/26 campaign elsewhere, Xinabajul-Huehue's debt to them has not yet been settled.

"The players can demand payment and rely on their union for any situation the club may present them with," Carlos Figueroa, executive director of Guatemalan player union Sifupgua, tells FIFPRO.

Not only is there no plan to pay these salaries at present, Sifupgua reports Xinabajul is threatening the players with not paying the debt – despite telling them they have the money to do so. Payment would depend on whether Xinabajul manages to get the Liga Nacional to register them for the current season.

Legal dispute

Xinabajul is in a legal dispute with the league and the Guatemalan Football Association (Fedefut). In February this year, the league awarded Xinabajul-Huehue three points after their match against Marquense, who were initially sanctioned for fielding an ineligible player. But in May 2025, Fedefut's Arbitration Tribunal accepted Marquense's appeal and returned their three points – resulting in Xinabaju's relegation to the country's second tier. The club took the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland.

In early July, Fedefut declared Xinabajul's place in the Guatemalan second tier vacant for failing to meet registration requirements (including, under the new financial fair play rules, not having accumulated debts with its players). On 17 July, CAS ruled in favour of Xinabajul, prompting the club to reclaim their place in the country's top flight.

The league gave Xinabajul 48 hours to comply with the registration conditions; the club failed to fulfil those requirements.

Sifupgua claims that this situation should not interfere with the payment of debts owed to players, which are independent of the club's legal issues.

"The players can demand payment from the club. It is not right or ethical for the club to withhold the players' salaries while awaiting a legal resolution of the three-point dispute and, above all, the registration process," said Figueroa.

"The club is obliged to pay regardless of what happens there. The players have already provided their services, their contracts have expired and they obviously need their wages to meet their commitments. Payment is independent of the legal process. The club must take responsibility and pay the players as soon as possible."

Attempting to collect through legal action could take the players at least six months to receive the money owed to them.

Financial fair play in Guatemala, an achievement of Sifupgua

New regulations came into force in Guatemalan football in May 2025, applicable to clubs in the country's top flight and second tier.

The new rules eliminate a problem that seriously affected footballers in Guatemala for years: the number of clubs that folded, leaving unpaid wages and bonuses.

"We started working with Fedefut last year and managed to agree on financial fair play regulations," says Figueroa.

"The clubs were given training and workshops to see what non-payment entailed. The regulations state that in order for clubs to obtain their licence to participate in the new season, they must meet certain requirements such as submitting financial reports, budgets, audits and, most importantly for footballers, they must submit settlement documents for their contracts from the previous season."

The rule requires clubs to be debt-free if they want to start the new season to prevent debts from accumulating year after year.

"This is a very important achievement for the union," says Figueroa.

Financial fair play is one of the requirements that Xinabajul failed to meet in order to register for the 2025/26 season, as the club had not paid off its debts to players from the previous season. The Liga Nacional did not register the club and Fedefut endorsed their decision.