The Spanish government has heavily criticised the country’s football federation over its handling of the boycott launched by top female players. The governing body was accused of making “a fool” of the country as footage emerged appearing to show a number of the players stony-faced as they boarded a bus for the training camp.
The fresh turmoil came after the team’s new coach, Montse Tomé, ignored their decision not to play until major changes are made. Instead, she called up most of the World Cup-winning squad.
While the players initially said they would continue the boycott, the potential legal consequences suggested they had little choice but to heed the call; under Spain’s Sports Act, players who refuse the call-up could face fines of up €30,000 (£26,000) and be banned from appearing for their clubs.
It was the latest twist in the players’ long-running battle for change at the federation; a struggle that burst into public view last month after Luis Rubiales grabbed Jenni Hermoso by the head, pulled her towards him and kissed her on the lips at the World Cup medal ceremony.
On Tuesday six players – four of whom had said on social media that they would continue the boycott – turned up at the Madrid hotel to join the national team camp. Among them was the goalkeeper Misa Rodríguez, who was asked if she was happy to have been called up. “No,” she answered.
Other players were told to show up in Valencia on Tuesday. After the Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas was asked at Barcelona airport how she was feeling en route to training camp, her answer was simple: “Bad, how else?”
The federation’s move prompted the government to say on Tuesday that it would intervene and attempt to broker a solution. “The government had let the federation be the ones to talk to the players, giving it room to manoeuvre,” Spain’s secretary for sports and president of the high council for sports, Víctor Francos, told the broadcaster La Sexta. “Yesterday, we made a fool of ourselves as a country.”
Describing the situation as “unacceptable”, he said he had spoken with some of the players. “The impression I came away with was the most negative one possible. I did not hear resentment or anger, I heard sadness and exhaustion, and that is why I decided to back them.”
Francos was expected to meet the players late on Tuesday and it has been reported in Spain that talks with relevant officials has led to the players negotiating to receive written confirmation that they will not be sanctioned should they wish to leave camp. An agreement could lead to many, if not all, departing immediately.
The squad announcement had been originally planned for last Friday but was postponed after the federation failed to reach an agreement with the players. The call-up on Monday, described by Spanish media as “absolute chaos”, left all sides scrambling before the Nations League game against Sweden on Friday.
In the early hours of Tuesday, Hermoso published a statement that cited the decision to call up the boycotting players as proof that “nothing has changed” at the federation.
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Hermoso, who was not selected, said the players had been “caught by surprise” by the call-ups and were forced to react to “another unfortunate situation caused by the people who continue to make decisions within the RFEF”.
On social media, the 33-year-old striker said: “The players are certain that this is yet another strategy of division and manipulation to intimidate and threaten us with legal repercussion and economic sanctions. It is yet more irrefutable proof that shows that even today, nothing has changed.”
The RFEF did not respond to a request for comment. Before the call-up on Monday, the federation said it was convinced of the need for “structural changes”. It added: “It is evident that the federation, society and the players themselves are aligned along the same objective: renewal and the beginning of a new stage where football is the great beneficiary of this entire process.”
Later in the day, Tomé, who replaced Jorge Vilda as coach of the national team, linked the decision to leave Hermoso out of the squad to the intense media attention she had received after Rubiales’s unsolicited kiss. “We stand with Jenni … we believe that the best way to protect her is like this, but we are counting on Jenni,” Tomé said.
Hermoso hit back, askingwho she required protection from. “A claim was made today stating that the environment within the federation would be safe for my colleagues to rejoin yet at the press conference it was announced that they were not calling me as a means to protect me,” she said. “Protect me from what? And from whom?”