Serie A strike: what's behind it?

The major Italian sports papers all run strike stories on the front page,
"Own goal" screams the cover of La Gazzetta dello Sport

An own goal. That's what the papers here are calling it, and I can't disagree. It's difficult to see any winners in this latest butting of heads between the clubs and the players. In a dispute over the players' collective bargaining agreement that's been running for a long time now, the players have again gone on strike to make their point, despite knowing that it will damage the image of the league and annoy fans in the process.

Serie A fans might remember that strike action loomed last December, only to be averted at the 11^th hour thanks to some desperate negotiations. After those talks, a new version of the agreement was approved by the Italian Footballers' Association (AIC) and delivered to the clubs almost four months ago. Despite having the whole summer to mull over the terms, for some reason the owners then waited until just days before the beginning of the new term to announce that they wouldn't be signing it.

The owners say the sticking point is tax. The Italian government plans to impose a new levy on the country's highest earners, and the clubs say that the agreement doesn't outline who will pay these new taxes – the clubs or the players. According to one-time Roma star Damiano Tommasi (now the AIC's president), however, this is nonsense. The long-time curly hair enthusiast has said that the players will pay the tax in accordance with the law, and accuses the clubs of using this to discredit the players and avoid discussion on the main sticking point: segregated training.

Now, apartheid South Africa or 1950s Alabama this is not, but the AIC is staunchly opposed to what it says is the marginalisation of some of its members. Separation, it claims, damages the player's professional dignity and is nothing but a tool used as a powerful blackmail technique by clubs who wish to off-load players.

Goran Pandev, Antonio Cassano and Federico Marchetti are just three high-profile players who have been frozen out in this way and the AIC are adamant that it must stop. The clubs say that a clause guaranteeing the right to train as a group would impinge on the managers' control.

This is a struggle that has been fought for some time. It's true that the clubs use it as a way to force players out, but it's also true that segregated training is sometimes the only option for a disruptive player. One bad apple can spoil the barrel, as they say, and there's more than a few of them knocking around the peninsula's orchard.

Speaking for the clubs, Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis pleaded: “We aren't trying to wage war on anyone. The agreement is out of date, something that belongs three decades ago. There's no point renewing it, we need to modernise it.” 

If these words sound a little bit sensible to be coming out of Serie A, don't worry. Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani chirped in: “there is a widely held intention to not hand victory to the players in this matter,” and warned, “If necessary we can wait till December.”

Let's hope it doesn't come to that.