{Players complain of unpaid wages for four months as opening games postponed despite government payout.}<\/p>\n
Footballers in Argentina pushed ahead with a strike over unpaid wages, forcing the year’s first league games to be suspended despite a $22m government payout, officials said.<\/p>\n
Friday evening’s fixtures, Rosario Central versus Godoy Cruz and San Lorenzo against Belgrano were suspended, the Argentine Football Association (AFA) said.<\/p>\n
The Argentina Footballers’ Union (FAA) had warned earlier that the government payout had not resolved the dispute.<\/p>\n
“Tomorrow [Friday], there will be no football. I maintain that the situation today is worse than yesterday,” said FAA spokesman Sergio Marchi. <\/p>\n
The union says some players have not been paid for four months because the state had failed to redistribute broadcasting revenues to their clubs.<\/p>\n
The AFA has been without a permanent president since the death of Julio Grondona in July 2014.<\/p>\n
Al Jazeera’s Daniel Schweimler, reporting from Buenos Aires, said FIFA, football’s world governing body, has threatened to suspend Argentina from international competition unless the AFA adopts its criteria for choosing a new boss.<\/p>\n
{{Payout not enough}}<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the government approved the payment of 350 million pesos ($22m) to the AFA, which the association will pass on to clubs.<\/p>\n
But the FAA said that was less than half the debt owed to the clubs. It said the $22m was not expected to be paid until Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Last week the AFA ended a contract that gave the state broadcasting rights to top matches.<\/p>\n
The association, which is scheduled to elect a new president next month, is threatening to deduct points. <\/p>\n
The chaotic situation has prompted several top clubs to say they might field non-professional players to get around the strike.<\/p>\n
The strike has also hit the football fans hard.<\/p>\n
“Those who run football and our politicians should realise that football is the national sport in Argentina,” Ariel, a football fan, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
“Football should be available to everyone. We’ve all got the right to football.”<\/p>\n
Source:Al Jazeera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Players complain of unpaid wages for four months as opening games postponed despite government payout.} Footballers in Argentina pushed ahead with a strike over unpaid wages, forcing the year’s first league games to be suspended despite a $22m government payout, officials said. Friday evening’s fixtures, Rosario Central versus Godoy Cruz and San Lorenzo against Belgrano […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[160],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-33004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-theophile-niyitegeka"],"bylines":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"contributors":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33004\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33004"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=33004"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=33004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}