Yolanda Diaz announces sanctions against the Spanish Football Federation and three clubs for failing to comply with equality measures

The inspectorate of the Ministry of Labor, headed by Yolanda Diaz, sanctioned the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and three other women’s clubs (Barça, Espanyol and CD Europa) for failing to comply with measures to ensure equality in labor and wages. The Labor Party also inspected 16 clubs.

“We have begun investigations into three very important cases. (…) Discrimination in remuneration between male and female players, the presence or absence of equality plans that the Federation and sports clubs must have, and protocols that sports organizations must have,” Diaz said in an interview with Spanish National Radio.

In the case of RFEF, the violation was the absence of an equality plan, as required by law from 2022. Failure to have this plan can result in fines of up to €7,500. Similarly, the Federation was sanctioned for failing to activate a harassment protocol in the case of soccer player Jenny Hermoso, who was kissed without consent by then Federation President Luis Rubiales in the World Cup final on August 20.

“We are sending our world champions without an equality plan and without a plan for harassment in the workplace, which is very serious,” Diaz said, and revealed that it was Futpro, the professional association of women’s footballers, that asked the Labor Party to carry out these checks.

Satisfaction at Futpro

The organization demonstrated its “satisfaction” with Labour’s measures this Wednesday. “On 19 September 2023, our association filed a complaint with the ITSS (Inspectorate of Labor and Social Security), expressing our concerns regarding the prevention of sexual and gender-based harassment in the RFEF, especially following the incidents of 20 August 2023 in which appropriate protocols were not activated to protect football players,” Futpro said in a statement.

In addition, this association ensures that the RFEF does not have an Equality Plan tailored to current regulations, as well as a Sexual Harassment and Harassment Protocol that allows workers to know how to activate it, who to contact, or what to expect when an investigation is completed. It also condemns the workplace’s failure to properly investigate the events that occurred on August 20, 2023, in accordance with any of its sexual and gender-based harassment protocols.

“It is essential that the most important institutions of our society adhere to the values ​​of equality, respect and progress that citizens demand,” Futpro said in a statement.

For his part, Diaz noted that Real Madrid and Sevilla are among the clubs that show the best results. He also reminded all sports organizations that they must adhere to the rules. “Harvalism is a very serious issue and there cannot be players displaced around the world without equality plans in place,” he said.