Spanish footballers Irene Paredes and Alexia Putellas, world champions, on Thursday denounced decades of “systematic discrimination” against women’s football by the Spanish federation, saying the “Rubiales case” was the “straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“We had been asking people to listen to us for a long time, we knew that there had been systematic discrimination in women’s football for decades. We have had to fight hard to be heard and that brings a tension that we do not want to experience, because we are all about winning.” said Alexia Putellas, at a press conference in Gothenburg, on the eve of the Nations League match between the teams of Spain and Sweden.
“But what happened in the final [do Mundial deste ano, em Sydney] and in the subsequent editing [da Real Federação Espanhola de Futebol, RFEF] It was the straw that broke the camel’s back and we said that this couldn’t be the case, that we couldn’t continue on that path. Given that situation, we had to say zero tolerance for Jenni [Hermoso]for us, and set a precedent”, he added.
During the World Cup finals in Sydney on August 20, then-RFEF president Luis Rubiales kissed footballer Jenni Hermoso in the stadium, an act the player said was not consensual.
Days later, Rubiales assured a general meeting of the federation that the kiss was consensual and refused to resign from his post.
Rubiales eventually resigned weeks later, under pressure from public opinion and the Spanish government, and after FIFA suspended him and opened a case against him, as did the Spanish Administrative Sports Court.
The Spanish federation has since fired the team’s coach, Jorge Vilda, but the players are demanding more changes from the federation and have even said they were not available to return to the national team until other changes were made.
Despite this, the new coach, Montse Tomé, eventually called a number of football players who had declared themselves unavailable for the Nations League matches against Sweden on Friday and against Switzerland next Tuesday.
“All we want is to play football in decent conditions and be respected”
Most of the players called up eventually traveled to Sweden, following the intervention of the president of the Spanish Supreme Council of Sport (CSD), a government-supervised body that acted as a mediator between the footballers and the federation, resulting in a commitment of the RFEF to respond to the demands of the world champions.
“We did not want to come, we had decided that we could not come, that it was not the time, we were forced, we were upset, but we came and accepted some meetings. The meeting was constructive, agreements were We have it achieved and we believe they are important to move forward. From here we know that there are things that take time,” said Alexia Putellas.
The footballer also explained that they decided to stay in the national team because of the under-23 team, which would be called up to replace them, leaving younger players in a difficult situation.
“The light at the end of the tunnel has yet to be seen, this is taking too long”
“All we want is to play football under decent conditions and be respected. Until now this has not been possible and after the final [do mundial]impossible,” said Irene Paredes, who gave the press conference together with Alexia Putellas.
“That’s why we’re trying to change things. To get to the moment where players just dedicate themselves to playing and don’t have to worry about whether the system works. We’ve been without support. Now the CDS has stepped in in a very powerful way , which is grateful, but until now we felt alone,” she added.
Irene Paredes emphasized that there are things that are already being achieved and improved, “but the light at the end of the tunnel has not yet been seen, this takes a long time”.
“We are aware that we have a loudspeaker to be able to do this and there are many people behind it, companions from other national teams and sports and women who experience similar cases and we want this to be a turning point, to go to every situation.” others, raise our voices and eradicate these situations,” he added.
The two players gave the press conference after Spain’s new women’s coach, Montsé Tomé, spoke to journalists alone in the press room.
Source: DN
