The Association of Spanish Footballers (AFE) is planning a strike to support Isaac Cuenca, who AFE believes was treated unfairly. If the strike happens at the end of the month, as expected, the Madrid Derby between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid may have to be delayed.

Cuenca rose from La Masia, the famous youth training camp of Barcelona. Though he became well-known at the Nou Camp Stadium as a promising young player, but Cuenca failed to meet people's expectations for his talents. In summer 2018, he joined Reus in the Segunda Division. However, La Liga refused to allow the club to register for Cuenca because they question the nature of his contract with the club.

The minimum salary a player in Segunda Division can get is about 89,000 US dollars and that is how much Cuenca has signed for, but the 27-year-old expressed his disappointment about this on social media: "I have turned down multiple nice offers only to play in Spain. I chose Reus because that's my home team and I wanted to go home. However, La Liga refused to register for me because they thought I'm paid much more than what the contract says. I have accepted all financial conditions like other registered players in order to play but did not receive the same treatment from La Liga."

This will not be the first strike La Liga has encountered. Back in May 2015, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) announced that the rest of the games of both La Liga and Copa del Rey would be infinitely delayed after the RFEF and the Spanish government failed to agree on how to share revenue from TV money. The delay was soon cancelled as Spain's High Court ruled the decision "illegal".

What should worry La Liga more is not Cuenca's case but the teams' resentment against the league's decision of moving one round of the season to North America in the next 15 years. This new arrangement came after La Liga signed with entertainment group Relevent and has drawn stern protests from players.

Real Madrid's Sergio Ramos and Barcelona's Sergio Busquets have vowed to fight any decision to play overseas games after and threatened to launch strikes of their own. "The players are outraged, very surprised and are all against it. It's unanimous. The players don't want to play overseas. We are going to try to see that it doesn't reach that extreme (of a strike). But we are willing to go right to the last option if it is necessary," said David Aganzo, president of AFE.

La Liga and AFE are scheduled to meet in September to discuss various issues, including how to solve the conflict over international games between the league and the players.

(Top picture: Real Madrid vs. Atletico Madrid at the 2018 UEFA Super Cup /VCG Photo)