France’s controversial 75% tax for high earners drove award-winning actor Gerard Depardieu to take Russian citizenship.

Now, French football clubs are going on strike to protest the legislation’s planned implementation next year, claiming it will make them less competitive against European rivals and cause further financial hardship.

The Professional Union of Football Clubs (UCPF) announced Thursday that they will boycott all matches in the top two divisions scheduled between November 29-December 2.

It will be the first such strike in France since 1972, when players protested about their salaries, and will be the first in a major European league since the start of the 2010-11 Italian season was disrupted.

“This unprecedented day must be the occasion for the silent majority of French football to express its opposition,” UCPF president Jean-Pierre Louvel said in a statement Thursday.

The 75% tax will apply to players who earn more than €1 million ($1.38 million) a year. Under the law’s initial wording the earners themselves would have had to pay it, but after protests Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party government moved the responsibility to their employers.

The UCPF claims the tax will make French clubs less competitive against European rivals in countries which have lower taxes.