In recent seasons Spanish football has been regularly lavished with praise. The vast majority of this understandably rests upon the dominant national team and the dazzling displays of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo at Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively. In fact, these superlatives have effectively drowned out a lot of simultaneous concerns in Spain, those to do with finance.
Take a look at the third tier in the Spanish football league- Segunda División B. Currently it is being topped by Racing Santander, courtesy of a two point buffer over Guijuelo. Now, if you have ever heard of Guijuelo before I'll take you at your word (although I'd have doubts), however you should know Racing Santander.
They're a club that has spent the majority of their history in La Liga, but despite a few near misses they've never won a major trophy. Starting in 1993/4 through to the 2011/12 season they maintained a period of league stability when they spent only one season outside of the top flight. But 2011/12 saw them finish a distant bottom of La Liga, and in 2012/13 they moved leagues again.
Sadly for 'Los Montañeses' it wasn't to be an instant return via promotion, instead they suffered a second consecutive relegation, this time by a one point margin. Racing Santander's dramatic fall from grace is evident, but now they appear to be heading back up the league pyramid so what's the problem?
Quite a lot is the answer. Towards the end of January Racing Santander were still involved in the Copa del Rey. After a very decent run to the quarter-finals they had lost the first leg away at Real Sociedad (3-1), but were still in with a chance of turning it around at El Sardinero.
The home leg came on January 30th but rather than the players of Racing aiming for a heroic semi-final, their aims were on another commodity- wages. What followed was an extraordinary boycott as the home team allowed Real Sociedad to kick-off and pass the ball whilst they stood with arms linked around their half of the centre circle. The referee asked if Racing Santander wished to forfeit and they did just that, effectively resigning from the competition.
This wasn't a selfish strike by players though, this was a unified demonstration to the club board, with coaching staff and fans all joined in solidarity. It transpires that many club employees have not been paid for a varying number of months, including the players and the manager Paco Fernandez.
Understandably the board and the club president Angel Iglesias Lavín faced increasing anger and resentment. As a result the players issued an ultimatum that demanded the resignation of all those involved, and the failure to do so resulted in the aforementioned boycott.
So Racing Santander sacrificed their chance of a semi-final with Barcelona. But in doing so they achieved one of their aims, within 48 hours the shareholders of the club used a court order to dismiss Lavín and replace him with Juan Antonio Sañudo. As things stand this is a sensible and popular choice, Sañudo is a former club stalwart who played for Racing more than 300 times, and the fans will expect him to have their best wishes at heart.
Neutral fans overwhelmingly supported the actions of the Racing players, and it's not hard to see why. Considering that wages have been withheld for practically all of this season, it would take a very unsympathetic commentator to be critical. However glamorous the life of a footballer is, no employee deserves to be exploited in this fashion and a breaking point had to be reached.
Making their protest during the Copa del Rey quarter-final simply served to gain as much press-attention as possible for the cause. The same amount of coverage would have been unattainable if it had been left to a Segunda División B fixture.
Of course clubs can be somewhat complicit in their own economic failings, particularly when yielding to the charms of an inadequate owner. Inexplicably this grey area continues to be a burden and a low priority for all football authorities. The Premier League may champion their 'fit and proper persons test' but it appears that the difficulty in passing this is tantamount to beating a hamster in a boxing match.
So what about those outstanding wages? For now there is nothing new to report, but Racing have since resumed playing and maintained their promotion quest with two wins and a draw. The hope is that some sort of arrangement is in the pipeline, not just for the sake of the staff at Racing, but also for their fans and for Spanish football in general. When you look at the monumental resources available to Barcelona and Real Madrid, and then compare that with the circumstances of Racing, the situation is embarrassing.