Spain‘s World Cup-winning women’s players don’t plan to end their boycott of the national team despite being called up for the squad by new coach Montse Tomé on Monday.
The players said they were caught by surprise by the call-up after they had made clear their decision not to play for the national team until their demands for change at the Spanish soccer federation were met.
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Tomé selected nearly half of the 39 players who had signed a statement refusing to play for the national team – including 15 World Cup-winners – after former federation president Luis Rubiales refused to resign for kissing player Jenni Hermoso on the lips at the World Cup awards ceremony in Sydney last month.
Rubiales eventually stepped down and coach Jorge Vilda was fired, but the players said their demands for deep reforms and new leadership had not been met yet.
Tomé said she decided not to call up Hermoso “to protect her” after the player was caught in the middle of the controversy that led to an institutional crisis and brought embarrassment to Spanish soccer. The new coach, who was an assistant to Vilda at the World Cup, did not say whether it was Hermoso who asked not to be called up.
In the players’ new statement on Monday, they said the federation can’t force them to join up with the team and said the call-up was not made in accordance with current FIFA regulations. They would have to report to training camp on Tuesday morning in Madrid, though some are abroad and would not be able to make it in time.
According to Spanish sports law, athletes are required to answer the call of its national teams unless there are circumstances that impede them from playing, such as an injury.
“As professional athletes, after everything that happened today, we will study the possible legal consequences to which the federation exposed us to by including us in a list in which we had asked not to be in because of the reasons that we already publicly explained,” the players said. “We regret once again that our federation has put us in a situation in which we never wanted to be in.”
