A protracted nine-month wage dispute with the Danish Football Association (DBU) resulted in the Danish men’s team offering £60,000 pounds (Rs 52 lakh) a year to their women’s team, BBC reported on Sunday.
Negotiations with the women’s team have been underway but talks broke down over whether the women’s team were employed by the DBU. Under the new deal, the women’s team have been categorically denied employee status – something that was rejected by the Danish Professional Footballers Association (PFA), who are representing the Danish women’s team.
The Danish PFA, in turn, sent two proposals to the DBU on Sunday, only to see it being turned down. “It is very frustrating trying to make ends meet when you face an FA which does not actually want to negotiate,” said Danish PFA president Jeppe Curth.
“On Sunday we sent two new proposals to the Danish FA,” Curth said in a statement. The last one included an offer from the players of the men’s national team, who offered £60,000 a year from their agreement with the DBU to the women’s national team instead.
This was on the condition of the Danish FA securing the same basic rights for the women in their agreement as the men have in theirs. The DBU has unfortunately decided to reject both these offers.”
Denmark women recently reached the Euro 2017 final, where they lost to Netherlands. They were scheduled to play the Dutch national side on Friday but went on strike ahead of the game. The women’s team have a World Cup qualifier match on Tuesday, and DBU communications manager Jakob Hoyer was reported as saying that they either “have to find other players or withdraw” from the contest altogether.