The Costa Rican player's association is pushing for a minimum salary for Costa Rica's first and second divisions. http://www.nacion.com/2010-09-03/Deportes/NotaPrincipal/Deportes2508430.aspx They are appearing before Costa Rica's salary commission to push for a minimum salary of C500,000 ($1000) per month for 1st division players and C300,000 ($600) per month for 2nd division players. They argue that they are the only people capable of performing their jobs, and thus they should be classified as profesional workers and receive an appropriate minimum sallary. The federation and league apparatus prefer the players to be categorized as "qualified workers" (if they are indeed classified at all) and want to have a minimum wage of at most $500 a month for 1st division players and $430 for 2nd division players. The federation claims that to attain "professional" status someone needs to have academic standing. They also point out that no soccer players meet the 8 hour a day requisite to qualify for either the "professional" or the "qualified" minimum wages. The federation's ideal situation is that the players are classified under neither of the categories and don't receive any minimum wage. What's my take? I think the players are going to have a hard time getting the government to go along with them. The minimum wage for college graduates is roughly $800 a month, and no government is going to want to make a policy stating that soccer players are worth more than actual college grads. As for the federation, they are rightfully against this proposal. Costa Rican football is barely professionalized in the 2nd division and a $12000+ wage bill (20 players times $600) would put a big strain on the clubs. Assuming tickets are $6 for a game (which they aren't because that is the cost for a primera game and there is no way segunda clubs would charge the same price), the clubs would have to sell 2000 tickets per month (roughly 1000 per game) just to cover wages. The second division would pretty much die, and the small primera division would shrink even further as many 1st division teams (such as UCR) wouldn't be able to cover the bill. Anyways, I'm interested to hear your thoughts. This really puts into context the wage battles elsewhere in the world.
In both proposals ($1,000 and $600 vs. $500 and $430) I'm surprised the gap between the two levels isn't more. England obviously has more people and professional clubs, but the ratio of average salary in the Premier League to League Championship is much greater than in Costa Rica.
Yeah, the second proposal has a really small gap. I suspect that currently some second division players don't get payed at all or receive the equivelant of semi-pro benefits. Thus, the current gap is probably quite large percentage wise.
Shit if they can't get 1K per game then why are they in business? . our D2 i believe average about 4-5K per game and WPS gets about 3K per game.
That's kind of my point. I suspect that 4-5K is the average for Costa Rica's primera division, if they even manage that much. A lot of the teams in Costa Rica's D2 are barely professional. I'm talking USL-2 or maybe even PDL in terms of financing. The players association is trying to make their D2 something it isn't.
There aren´t contracted salaries in the second division, the players are paid out of the club´s pockets (often they aren´t paid on time or at all.) Most players after leaving the youth systems are sent to the second division to wet their feet in a (sort of) professional evironment and prepare them for the first division/youth national teams. Most are students and/or working second jobs. The $600 probably won´t happening (especially for bench warmers) for anyone other than big name or foreign players. Teams in the San Jose metropolitan area don´t get too many spectators (considering Saprissa, Brujas, and UCR are located there and not many people will leave that to watch second division) but teams in smaller towns like Grecia and Guanacaste can sell out stadiums.
I definately think that 2nd division players with paid contracts do get paid. Given that Costa Rica has a pretty strong law system (compared to most Latin countries at least) this shouldn't be an issue, but I imagine it can be a long and costly judicial process for players. If the federation isn't assuring wages get paid then they need to do a better job. I hear what your saying about the provencial teams. I've been impressed with Limonense's (newly promoted team) attendance. The stadium vs. Saprissa was at least several hundred over capacity and I barely saw any Saprissistas.
Teams in Mexican Primera have had payment issues in the past, Puebla had issues years ago, and then again the Puebla front office has many issues.
Politics and the judicial system may be orderly in Costa Rica, but the federation is just as corrupt as any in Latin America. We have the worst crowd control and hooligan problems in Central America (and probably all of CONCACAF.) Also many of the players don´t have much education and it´s easy for them to be taken advantage of. Those without agents (most in the second division and many in the first) probably wouldn´t know how to go about filing a suit.
that's because a judge froze their accounts, but they eventually fixed to make the payments on time... as far as I remember. If Puebla had missed payments they would have been in deep shit with the fmf. the Mexican league has a strong reputation as far as wages are concerned.
Yes, I think they were told they would be eliminated from the playoff if they did not pay. Now they have the whole thing about the one partner having the other arrested. Puebla is surely a mess, but they are the exception and not the rule, that is one good thing about the FMF. At least in First division.
true on that, but the at least the power is is concentrated on one person now. i don't think puebla will be going through that again. one of the parners ended up with 90 some percent of the club, which gives him absolute majority.