Spain’s international footballers reaffirmed their “desire not to be called up for justifiable reasons” to the national team through a statement on Monday, hours after the new selector announced a list of 23 names for the upcoming matches.
The internationals of the world champion team emphasize that their previous statement “made this clear and without any possibility of any other interpretation”, rejecting Montse Tomé’s call-up for the Nations League matches, as “the statements remain fully valid”.
They add that “in the days following this announcement” They want to “make it public that nothing else has been passed on to anyone belonging to the RFEF”, the Spanish football federation, and therefore they “expressly request that the information passed on publicly is rigorous”.
“We, as elite professional players and after everything that happened today, We will study possible legal consequences to which the RFEF exposes us, by including us on a list from which we have asked not to be included, for reasons already explained in more detail,” the statement continues.
In this context, they consider that the call “was not timely and in accordance with Article 3.2 of Annex I of the FIFA Player Status and Transfer Rules”, and therefore understand that the RFEF is “not in a position” to demand those who answer the call.
“We once again regret that our federation is putting us in a situation that we never wanted,” the players’ group statement concluded.
Last Friday, 39 players, including 21 of the 23 world champions, asked the RFEF to restructure the organizational chart of women’s football, assuring that the changes made are “not enough” to make them feel “in a safe place”.
They also called for the resignation of the RFEF president, temporarily named Pedro Rocha, and for the restructuring of the communications and marketing departments and the integrity department, as the changes implemented since the World Cup “are not enough”.
The statement led to the postponement of the call for Nations League matches until today, with 15 players who were in the World Cup included in the list, but not Jenni Hermoso, the player at the center of the controversy that started with the kiss of the then federative president Luis Rubiales.
The champion coach, Jorge Vilda, was also removed and replaced by Montse Tomé, but this failed to ‘calm’ the wave of protest, with 39 players calling for radical changes in women’s football, in order to return to the national team.
Spain is expected to start its Nations League campaign, which will qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, against Sweden in Gothenburg on Wednesday before hosting Switzerland in Córdoba on September 26.
Source: DN
