𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐌𝐁𝐈𝐀: 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐍𝐎𝐍-𝐅𝐈𝐅𝐏𝐑𝐎 𝐌𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐏 — 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐖𝐎𝐍 𝐀 𝐒𝐄𝐀𝐓 𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐄𝐆𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐀𝐁𝐋𝐄

𝐁𝐲 𝐏𝐚𝐮𝐥 𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐲 𝐎𝐤𝐨𝐤𝐮

For years, Colombian professional footballers faced a contradiction.

The clubs employed them, but some of the decisions shaping their working lives were made elsewhere — by the Colombian Football Federation and Dimayor, the professional league.

𝐊𝐢𝐜𝐤-𝐨𝐟𝐟 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬. 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐬. 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐝𝐬. 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐬. 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬.

So whom should the players negotiate with?

That question became central to a long struggle led by ACOLFUTPRO, Colombia’s professional footballers’ association.

The lesson from Colombia is not that collective bargaining produces instant harmony.

𝐈𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐬.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐁𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐒𝐈𝐌𝐏𝐋𝐘 𝐓𝐎 𝐁𝐄 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐃

Colombia’s labour structure created an unusual problem.

Under domestic law, the clubs are the players’ direct employers. Yet ACOLFUTPRO argued that the federation and Dimayor also exercise substantial influence over the conditions under which professional footballers work.

For years, the union struggled to secure meaningful negotiations with those institutions.

In December 2021, it took the dispute to the International Labour Organization, invoking international conventions concerning freedom of association and collective bargaining.

That move widened the arena.

With Colombia’s Ministry of Labour later mediating, ACOLFUTPRO, the federation, Dimayor and club representatives eventually sat around the same table.

𝐁𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐧𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞.

𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐇 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐁𝐄𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐊𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐔𝐄𝐒

The talks eventually produced practical gains.

In 2025, changes to the men’s calendar provided at least eight additional days of end-of-season rest compared with the previous year.

The parties also addressed kick-off scheduling in places where combinations of extreme heat and humidity could create added health risks for players, including cities such as Barranquilla.

The federation and Dimayor further agreed to recommend that clubs respect a weekly paid rest day.

None of those measures sounds dramatic on a match poster.

But careers are not lived on posters.

They are lived in training sessions, airports, recovery rooms and tired bodies asked to perform again.

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐚 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐚 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐞.

𝐖𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍’𝐒 𝐅𝐎𝐎𝐓𝐁𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐆𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐄

The negotiations also reached the women’s game.

For the 2025 season, Colombia’s women’s league expanded to 16 teams and 158 matches, with the competition scheduled across a longer season.

The employment consequence was significant: according to ACOLFUTPRO, player contracts that had commonly lasted around four months were expected to extend to approximately eight months.

𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭.

That connection matters.

Growth should not mean asking women to play a longer competition while leaving them with the same short-term insecurity.

ACOLFUTPRO did not obtain everything it sought, including its desired number of contracts per club. But the negotiations demonstrated that women’s contractual conditions could no longer be treated as an afterthought.

𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐕𝐈𝐂𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐃𝐈𝐃 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐄𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐏𝐔𝐓𝐄

Collective bargaining is rarely a straight road.

The January 2025 agreements were only partial. Issues including the player statute, disciplinary rules, freedom of work and economic sanctions remained unresolved.

In March 2025, more than 1,000 Colombian footballers voted in favour of strike action after negotiations stalled on nine outstanding points.

The significance was not simply the threat of a strike.

It was the scale of collective participation.

Players were no longer waiting for one captain, one veteran or one high-profile international to speak for everyone.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞.

And the struggle continued. FIFPRO reported in January 2026 that further negotiations had concluded in September 2025, but a labour agreement expected to be formalised in November remained unsigned after the federation and Dimayor declined to sign it.

Progress had been made.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫.

𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐒 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘 𝐌𝐄𝐀𝐍𝐒

Colombia offers a useful correction to the idea that a players’ union exists only to recover unpaid wages.

ACOLFUTPRO’s work reached into scheduling, health, rest, women’s contracts, disciplinary rules and the structure of collective negotiations themselves.

A footballer can complain alone.

A dressing room can complain together.

But when players organise through a credible structure, document their demands, use labour law, invoke international mechanisms and negotiate collectively, the complaint becomes harder to ignore.

That is the deeper Colombian lesson.

𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞, 𝐚 𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞.

It is proved when players can convert their shared concerns into an organised voice — and that voice gains a place where decisions are made.

Because the player does not merely perform inside the system.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐢𝐭.

𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐝.

𝐏𝐚𝐮𝐥 𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐲 𝐎𝐤𝐨𝐤𝐮
FIFA Legend | Former Nigeria Flying Eagles Vice-Captain | Former Super Eagles International | AFCON Silver Medalist | Football Historian | Football Analyst | Investigative Football Writer | Journalist-at-Large | Founder & CEO, Greater Tomorrow Children’s Fund (GTCF)