Footballer not paid because pregnant wins the case: now Lyon will have to compensate her – Football

TURIN — There was a happy ending in the story of Sara Bjork GunnarsdottirIcelandic soccer player currently at Juventus Women who sued, and won, his former team, the Lyon for lost wages paid during the pregnancy. A sentence, that of Fifa, which opens a new era, that of the inalienable rights of female players. And there would be more. The 32-year-old, mother of little Ragnar, had turned to Fifpro, the union of European professional footballers, to obtain payment of the 82,094 euros unpaid by Lyon during the pregnancy of the footballer, who told her story in a long contribution published in the site theplayerstribune. Last May’s ruling became final with the French club’s failure to appeal: the Chamber for Fifa resolutions forced Lyon to pay the residual compensation and 5% of the accrued interest.

Gunnarsdottir: pregnancy and disappointment with Lyon’s behaviour

Bjork-Gunnarsdottir, after four years at Wolfsburg, moved to Lyon in 2020, the strongest team in the world as evidenced by the dominance in the European field that has lasted for years. On 3 March 2021 the confirmation of her pregnancy arrived: “At first I felt only happiness but then reality hit me” said the Icelandic, a reaction which was followed by anxiety for her professional future: “How will the team react to all that”? In agreement with the club doctor, he initially kept the news hidden, to prevent it from having an emotional impact on his companions. Until the challenge with PSG in which she did not take part due to health conditions: a week later she told everything to her companions and the management: “Everyone was happy for me and super excited. But of course they had many questions because I was the first athlete in the history of Lyon to get pregnant with the full intention of returning to play”. Initially the club’s reaction was one of joy and Gunnarsdottir decided to leave for Iceland, where she would continue the pregnancy. The first salaries arrived at home and the footballer noticed the clear reduction in pay. She tried to get answers that came late: “When Vincent (Ponsotthe sporting director, ed) finally responded, apologized for two of the months I was missing, and said I’d get paid for those. But for the third month, he claimed they were behaving under French law, which meant they owed me nothing else.”

Gunnarsdottir and the fight for wages

However, the Fifa regulation provided for the payment of the entire salary up to maternity leave: after urging the club, still obtaining the same answer on French law, he decided to contact Fifa supported by Fifpro. Aware that in the event of the start of the dispute there would have been no more room for her in Lyon: “My son is now almost a year old, I now play for Juventus and I am very happy. But I want to make sure that no one ever has to go through what I went through again I. Now I want Lyon to know that what happened cannot be considered acceptable.” Lyon’s response came a few hours after the French club’s failure to appeal, also accused of not having followed the clinical development of its professional athlete’s pregnancy: “In recent months, Fifa has chosen to establish for the first time a regulatory framework for footballers who have to experience motherhood throughout their career. Which we are happy about. Fifa is now criticizing us for not offering another job to Sara Bjork Gunnarsdottir during her sick and maternity leave, while at at the same time the law forbids us to do it in France and the footballer had expressly asked us to be able to return to live in Iceland, which we had accepted. We are proud to have had Sara Bjork Gunnarsdottir in the Olympique Lyon squad. Our paths have crossed separated for purely sporting reasons.If you would like to help us further develop French law today, we would be happy to be able to involve you in our efforts at the f I am with Amel Majri to enable all athletes to fully experience their pregnancy, as well as their return to competition”.