In the final stretch of the Iberdrola League, with the newly proclaimed champion Bera Bera, the Salud Tenerife staff has declared a forced strike in an unsustainable situation: several months without being paid, players who have been thrown out of their homes due to non-payment of rent by the club, the constant departure of players from the entity (at least eight, although the club keeps the license of some of them active) , since Monday they have decided not to return to training.
Last week the squad received a call from the club: “In the match against Elche, bring your own food; the club cannot pay for it.” Maybe that’s why This Monday the coach resigned: Óscar Pacheco, in whom the players trusted to solve some of their problems.
In addition, both the current squad and the players who have left the club this season have declined to make public statements. because they assure that “they are afraid”. Those that still continue, because they aspire to be paid by the payroll that they owe; those that are no longer there, because they have pending debts from the club of president Javier Doblado.
Player contracts range from the lowest, of 900 plus a house, to which they are close to 1,600 euros, and although the majority of the group is made up of students, they all live from handball, so after more than half a year without getting paid, they are at the limit.
What is striking is that Lanzarote has already used 29 players, without major problems in finding replacements for Spanish and foreign players, and they have not resorted to the Spanish Federation, responsible for the competition, to denounce the situation. Three days before the end of the season, with the team relegated, they are still waiting for the situation to be resolved.