EXCLUSIVA The Government leaves the majority of Olympic athletes without retirement

For almost two years, Almudena Cid, Lola Fernández Ochoa and Fernando Romay, together with sports law expert lawyer María Laffitte and Cristina Estévez, from UGT, have led a battle for the rights of athletes: the recognition of their professional activity as contributing to Social Security.

After months of conversations with the Secretary of State for Social Security and Pensions, Borja Suárez, and the president of the Higher Sports Council (CSD), José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes, part of their aspirations have been reflected in a Royal Decree that the Government put out for public consultation last week.

The regulation, by which periods of activity exercised as professional athletes prior to their integration into the general social security regime are declared computable as contributions (1980-2003), comes to solve a historical inequality.

The majority of professional athletes from the 80s and 90s once retired did not reach the minimum number of years contributed, which resulted in pensions lower than what would correspond to them.

In this way, the computation of those periods of activity as contributed will have effects both at the time of the recognition of the retirement pension as well as of the right to the improvement of the pension that was being received, the ministry reported.

However, as Demócrata has been able to confirm, along the way, high-level athletes have been left behind, the majority among our Olympians. With the current wording of the Royal Decree, coverage is only granted to professional athletes who had employment contract with a club or entity. Not to those who competed for federations, who had ADO-type scholarships (from the Association of Olympic Sports) or who had sponsors.

Historical figures in basketball, cycling or handball will indeed benefit if the Royal Decree is approved. But the majority of Olympic athletes, especially in individual sports, are still outside the general regime.

A insufficient step

In conversation with Demócrata, former Olympic gymnast Almudena Cid, who has led this claim, celebrates the step taken but insists that a big stride is still needed:  "What we achieved was the easiest part, because professional athletes had contracts, played in leagues, were well located and were the ones who generated assets in their careers, that is, they had salaries".

In this regard, it specifies: "Unlike high-level athletes, who never had a contract. They always had a scholarship and although they paid taxes, no one contributed for them because there was never an employer".

For Cid, it is a matter of "social justice" that these athletes be recognized who elevated the Spain Brand in the eighties and nineties and who over time have found themselves unprotected. Furthermore, there is the paradox that this movement was initiated specifically on behalf of high-level athletes, and subsequently the claim of professional athletes was added. However, it has been the latter, the first to see their situation resolved. 

After learning the content of the Royal Decree, to which allegations can be made until next April 10, the promoters of this fight ask the ministry for another Royal Decree that takes into account high-performance athletes.

In limbo

Although the cause for which she is speaking out seeks to compensate already retired athletes, Cid also shows herself very critical of the current regime. The current contribution system forces high-level athletes to act as self-employed workers despite not fully fitting into that figure.

As denounced by the former gymnast and four-time Olympic finalist, athletes must advance the payment of their contributions to Social Security in order to, subsequently and only if they meet certain requirements, receive the refund of self-employment contributions.

"Which self-employed person in Spain pays everything at once? Many many athletes do not have access to that payment, others are very young and do not believe this is necessary, and others directly do not even have the information", Cid points out to this medium, adding: "We are working for the State, we are representing a country, we have obligations, we have prohibitions, we are not self-employed, we are subject to a structure that is not ours, but that of Spanish sport".

Alongside the vindication of pensions, within the legislative agenda in sports matters, the Athlete's Statute, foreseen in the Sports Law of 2022 and which has not yet been developed, is also pending.