A dizzying 24 hours to try to stop the protests against the Miami game.

After two months and following the snub that LaLiga, FC Barcelona and Villarreal gave to AFE and the First Division captains last Tuesday, in which they requested more information about the Miami match, the footballers said enough . In a joint meeting, on Thursday at 3:30 p.m., before the training camps began for the matches of Matchday 9 of LaLiga EA Sports, the captains of the 20 First Division teams decided that they would make a 15-second stand at the start of each match.

The management association quickly learned of the players' decision and attempted to hold an initial communication with AFE an hour later, to which EL MUNDO has had access. The communication proposed Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of next week as the meeting requested by the players and the union. A second, more threatening, meeting was subsequently launched, attempting to halt the initiative. "An action of this nature would not be in accordance with the applicable legal framework, as it would not comply with the constitutional and regulatory requirements regarding convening, notice, and guarantees inherent to the right to strike," the league wrote in the second letter at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.

The silence from the players and the union forced the institution headed by Javier Tebas to send a third letter, also on the president's letterhead, on Friday at 11:30 a.m. It returned to a conciliatory tone and included a document with questions and answers about the Miami event. It discussed international expansion , the potential audience for the match (60 million Spanish speakers), the money surrounding the event, and, somewhat more superficially, that both the promotion and organization were the responsibility of Relevent , without going into depth on logistical issues affecting the players.

AFE responded to this series of letters on Friday at 1:30 p.m., urging LaLiga to suspend ticket sales and convene a negotiating table. It reminded Javier Tebas that the dates proposed by the management for the meeting "demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of the calendar and the players' responsibilities."

LaLiga responded to that letter three hours later, calling the joint committee meeting for Friday the 24th, even though Matchday 10 of the First Division begins that day. It made itself available to the captains and assigned two items to the day's agenda: information on the Miami match and the AFE's promotion of the players' 15-second strike . It also spoke of the union's "bad faith" for its "fraudulent attempt to block the project under the guise of a request for information."

This communication was sent not only to AFE but also to all the captains individually. They referred the union to the management because they understood it was a measure to pressure and divide their unity . In addition to this response, the organization also announced a "symbolic act" for peace in the Middle East that would take place during the broadcasts of all LaLiga Matchday 9 matches on EA Sports and Hypermotion.

First protest

As the protest proved impossible to stop, at 9:02 p.m., when Mateo Busquets Ferrer ordered the start of the Oviedo-Espanyol match, the LaLiga broadcast showed a shot of the exterior of the Carlos Tartiere stadium during the players' strike while the narrators of both Movistar + and DAZN spoke about the organization's commitment to peace between Palestine and Israel.

However, while two teams were playing their match, 18 were watching on television, and the shot of the Tartiere was like a bombshell for the players. "The WhatsApp group went up in flames," explained sources familiar with the situation regarding the chat between the First Division captains, and the outrage was "absolute."

This indignation must have reached the employers' association, since the players' protest could be seen from an overhead shot at the Sevilla Mallorca stadium this Saturday, although a sign read "commitment to peace."

AFE and the footballers are scheduled to meet after Matchday 9 to discuss the next steps regarding the information they've been requesting since August 12 regarding the Miami match between Villarreal and Barcelona. It's almost ruled out that it will be held next week, as there are many international commitments, so it could be postponed until the following week.