The Supreme Court has buried the union that was born in association with Tebas and ended up being dragged down by Rubiales.

The Social Division of the Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal filed by the union Futbolistas ON against the ruling issued by the Social Division of the National Court , against the Spanish Football Players' Association (AFE), the UGT (Union of Workers' Unions) and the Association of Third Category Football Clubs . The interested parties included FUTPRO , Proliga , the Association of National Category Women's Football Clubs , the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and CCOO (the latter not appearing).

As we previously reported in this newspaper, Futbolistas ON was requesting the annulment of the process for First Division footballers to elect their representatives to negotiate the Collective Bargaining Agreement for this category. A process that, paradoxically, was requested by the aforementioned union more than three years ago, when the Second Division B still existed . The previous agreement dated back to 1989, so it referred to pesetas and mandatory military service, the famous mili.

According to AFE, 94.6% of eligible footballers participated in the elections, with 851 votes for the union headed by David Aganzo and 4 for Futbolistas ON . That's the same number of blank votes as there were 9 invalid votes. Indeed, only 4 votes were for the complainants. Although even these were too many, considering that, as we said, he didn't even show up, which only confirms the absurdity .

It should be recalled that on July 25, 2023, the National Court dismissed the claim filed by Futbolistas ON in its entirety. It upheld the RFEF's lack of passive standing and affirmed the free determination of the scope of the negotiations , that the disagreement did not evidence bad faith on the part of the defendants, and that FUTPRO, a union of female footballers, was aware of the process and had no intention of participating. It also stated that "the plaintiff union cannot set itself up as a defender of the interests of the other unions."

FUTPRO did not appeal despite joining the lawsuit

The National Court accepted the classification of the men's First RFEF as an intermediate professional category , without affecting the validity of the chosen scope. The most ridiculous aspect is that, as highlighted in the Supreme Court ruling to which this newspaper has had access, FUTPRO did not appeal it despite joining the lawsuit and having it dismissed. This union had the subjective right to appeal if it considered it had not been properly informed of the negotiation process.

It was in the wake of the internal fracture suffered by Futbolistas ON , with its founder and general director fired after returning from leave for "anxiety due to mistreatment" , when its president, Juan José Martínez , refused to negotiate a collective agreement only for the First Federation category. A surprising position that the other parties, both the union bank itself and the employers' association, that is, AFE, and the Association of Third Category Clubs, suspected could have been orchestrated by Rubiales' RFEF and the sinister Andreu Camps .

With time, and especially after the Supreme Court ruling, it seems clear that Futbolistas ON's move was completely suicidal . Far from achieving anything to justify its position, the only thing it resulted in was its being left out of the collective bargaining agreement negotiations that, from the very beginning, when someone was still in charge, had been its main stumbling block. Especially as a union for the most modest players.

The applause for Rubiales that some have forgotten

Of course, this is the logical consequence of being left in the hands of a president and a board of directors who are not only completely unprepared, but also have minimal ability to manage a union and the necessary personal training. It's also the result of throwing themselves into the arms of the wrong people. Curiously, this is the same person who did everything possible to prevent Futbolistas ON from succeeding , associating it with LaLiga president Javier Tebas , branding it a vertical or yellow union.

Time has also shown that this wasn't the case, as Tebas never lifted a finger to help ON, and it was Rubiales who dragged him down . Or does no one remember the images of Martínez applauding his friend Luis's five-note "I'm not going to resign!"? Both in FUTRPO and in Liga F, it's clear that's not the case. Otherwise, it's incomprehensible why they signed the Second Collective Agreement for Women's Football with the president of a union already known as Futbolistas OUT.