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There are more than 1,400 footballers who are owed wages around the world because their club has shut down. That scenario is unlikely in Spanish football.
Players in all four national divisions are shielded from a club going bust by a fund which is managed by national player union Asociación de Futbolistas Españoles (AFE).
When Ernest Forgas was a player for Reus B, a club from Tarragona in the fourth tier, he went five months without being paid. The club subsequently went into administration owing 700,000 euros in wages.
AFE lawyers visited the squad to reassure them.
“They told us you might have to wait a little but your pay is 100% guaranteed,” Forgas said.
Within three months of the season ending, Forgas and his teammates received a bank transfer from the fund for the money they were owed. Reus, which was founded in 1909, subsequently shut down.
