Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir

Iceland captain Sara Bjork Gunnarsdottir has revealed details of a landmark ruling that saw Lyon ordered to pay over £72,000 in unpaid salaries while she ...

The level? But Lyon stopped paying her wages while she was in Iceland and refused to address the situation as they claimed they were following French law. The facilities?

In the letter, Gunnarsdóttir explained her ensuing ordeal with the club. In May of last year, a FIFA tribunal ruled that Lyon would reimburse the Icelandic ...

“The whole amount I requested and exactly what I was owed,” she wrote. She alleges that she was “treated differently.” It became impossible for her to believe that her case was not having an effect on her relationship with the club. After discussions with club officials, per yesterday letter, she agreed to fly back to her home in Iceland to ease the process of birthgiving: to see doctors that spoke her language, and to be around her mother and family. All the while, she gave birth to her son, Ragnar, and returned with her partner Árni to France. Despite her anger at the club, she wished to devote her efforts to regaining fitness and – eventually – playing again. So began a tumultuous ordeal in which she eventually took up with FIFPRO and took her case against the French giants to FIFA. In the letter, Gunnarsdóttir explained that at the time that she turned professional, she had told her agent: “Wolfsburg and Lyon. She kept the news private, except only to the team doctor and physios, who also agreed to keep her secret. Although early in her pregnancy, she harboured doubts about how the news would affect both her career and her teammates. The club – for whom the seven-time Icelandic Women’s Footballer of the Year had dreamed of playing – had just won four consecutive European titles, and the move should have been a high point in her career. In the letter, Gunnarsdóttir explained her ensuing ordeal with the club. In 2016, she moved to VfL Wolfsburg, where she won four consecutive Frauen-Bundesliga titles and four consecutive DFB-Pokal titles.

SARA BJORK GUNNARSDOTTIR wants to ensure no players have to go through the ordeal she experienced during her battle with Lyon for back-dated maternity.

I called (my agent) Dietmar and he wrote to Vincent, the club director. "Then I missed another. "And I want Lyon to know this is not O.K." Gunnarsdottir added: "I want to make sure no one has to go through what I went through ever again. “Y’all love to talk about how much you support women, but this math is not mathing. "I want to make sure no one has to go through what I went through ever again.Sara Bjork Gunnarsdottir [written statement](https://twitter.com/FIFPRO/status/1615374721322819584?s=20&t=kiT6-phCvpg_dHj95K1eUg) shared via its Twitter account, the body said: "FIFPRO congratulates Sara Bjork Gunnarsdottir on her successful claim against Lyon over the club's failure to pay her full salary during pregnancy. Probably a clerical error. [Lyon](https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/team/1504303/lyon/) player with her case which was brought before a Fifa tribunal with the football authority later ruling in her favour. "I said to Dietmar, 'No that’s not right, they should be going by the FIFA rules.'" "I didn’t have time to think or be concerned about my salaries from the club. I implore you to be the club that is always supporting women, not the club that once did.”

The Iceland midfielder Sara Bjork Gunnarsdottir has described a decision to award her more than £72000 in back-dated pay during her maternity leave as “a ...

Icelandic midfielder Sara Bjork Gunnarsdottir became the first player to win a claim against a club through the FIFA Maternity Regulations.

Salary is paid in full during pregnancy and until maternity leave, regardless of the choice of the player to provide alternate services. But also, we need to regulate further the support in specialized training that the player receives during pregnancy and after the comeback. Something else that we need to work on is in the clarification on the fact that salary should be paid in full during pregnancy and until maternity leave starts. We had proposed already for the initial regulations a 15-day leave for non-bearing child parents, and this unfortunately did not go through, but we are optimistic that it will in the future. There is much more to be done, but we deem that the ultimate priority now is getting what we already enforced. If you want the best out of the player, you need to invest in the person. Everybody needs to understand that these protections are in place, why they are in place and how to enforce them. Clubs sometimes do not apply them because of bad faith, but many times it is due to the lack of knowledge that these exist and that they are mandatory also at national level (always as a minimum: so, if the national regulations or law provide for higher standards, these prevail). My pregnancy was of course a time of happy anticipation for me and my partner, but I always had this worry about my career and next steps in the back of my head. Alexandra Gomez Bruinewoud: The FIFA provisions on maternity are a minimum and are mandatory, and Lyon – a club that has always championed the progress of the women’s game – should have known this. Being a mother was seen as a negative influence, a possible distraction for the other players, when my son’s presence actually brought a lot of joy to my team-mates. When I asked what was happening, the replies were evasive, until finally I was informed that they were following French law on sick leave instead of FIFA’s maternity regulations, which would not entitle me to full payment during pregnancy and until the start of the maternity leave.

Icelandic soccer player Gunnarsdottir awarded more than €82k in back-dated pay after a successful legal claim against her former club.

Thus, we have always campaigned for increased protection of players on these points. ‘We have done everything we can to support Sara Bjork Gunnarsdottir in her motherhood, as well as her return to the highest level.’ Iceland soccer international Sara Bjork Gunnarsdottir has described a decision to award her more than UK£72,000 (US$89,000) in back-dated pay during her maternity leave as “a wake-up call” for clubs.

Iceland captain Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir on Tuesday revealed details of a maternity pay victory in a landmark ruling against her former club, ...

We have always campaigned for greater protection for players in these areas,” the club added. I implore you to be the club that is ALWAYS supporting women, not the club that once did.” “We have done everything possible to support Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir during her maternity period and her return to the highest level,” Olympique Lyonnais said in a statement to CNN.

Iceland captain Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir on Tuesday revealed details of a maternity pay victory in a landmark ruling against her former club, ...

We have always campaigned for greater protection for players in these areas,” the club added. I implore you to be the club that is ALWAYS supporting women, not the club that once did.” “We have done everything possible to support Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir during her maternity period and her return to the highest level,” Olympique Lyonnais said in a statement to CNN.

Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir, former captain of the Icelandic women's national football team won her case against...

Now, she has been awarded the back pay, plus interest, in a landmark case of maternity rights in professional sports. When it became clear the withheld pay was part of a pattern, Sara Björk pressed claims against Lyon. Sara Björk arranged with her club to return to Iceland for the duration of her pregnancy, with the understanding that she would return to the team after giving birth.