Barcelona, Real Madrid: Liga F teams walk out for matches set to be postponed

The first round of the Spain’s new professional women’s football league was postponed after the referees called a strike – but the players were still made to walk out for their matches.

The Liga F referees, who are demanding professional status and payment in line with the La Liga, have been on strike since September 8th.

“The referees want to provide the best possible service to football and that necessarily means having minimum working conditions comparable to those of the refereeing establishment of the men’s professional competition,” a statement said.

It was added that the referees would not officiate any top-division fixtures “under the present working and economic conditions”.

The Professional Women’s Football League (LPFF), which oversees Liga F, declared they would “not accept blackmail”.

The LPFF also announced that matches would still go ahead as normal over the weekend.

“In case the referees and assistants do not appear, the LPFF will proceed to file the corresponding complaints,” it said.

This resulted in a number of bizarre scenes across Spain, with teams walking out for matches they knew would eventually be postponed.

Fans and media were also present at the matches, which were then called off 30 minutes after the scheduled kick-off time “due to the non-appearance of the referee team”.

Keira Walsh & Lucy Bronze’s league debuts for Barça not as expected. All games postponed this weekend as referees strike. @LigaF_oficial call for talks with refs on Monday, without RFEF intervention this time, to find a solution pic.twitter.com/lhDZVONGuu

Barcelona were set to play Levante Las Planas, with new signings Lucy Bronze and Keira Walsh among the players walking out onto the pitch for no reason.

Real Madrid and