It is an earthquake that shakes Spanish women’s football. The players of the national team stand against their federation amid problems around the management of the team and the withdrawal of rallies. A war by press releases, which leaves La Roja in the dark a few weeks before the next rally.
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Selección absoluta femenina de fútbolhttps://t.co/TojMlGrRe6 pic.twitter.com/Da3zAtHZ8c
— RFEF (@rfef) September 22, 2022
It all started on Thursday, September 22. The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) announces that it has received 15 emails from 15 players claiming that they “renounced the national team” in protest against the “current situation” and coach Jorge Vilda. The players in question would be “strongly affected, in terms of physical and emotional health”by team management.
The action does not pass with the federation. “The RFEF does not allow players to question the place of the national coach and his technical staff”, writes the organization, which brandishes the threat of a suspension for two to five years from the selection if the boycott is confirmed. It also indicates that the protesters “will only come back to selection if they accept their mistake and ask for forgiveness.”
But the story does not end there. The next day, Friday September 23, many players from the selection shared a joint press release on their social networks to be indignant at the publication of private exchanges, and to dismantle the version of their federation. Among them, the star of FC Barcelona Alexia Putellas, Golden Ball 2021, Patri Guijarro, one of the three captains, or the young Mapi Leon, great hope of Spanish football.
— Alexia Putellas (@alexiaputellas) September 23, 2022
“We have not given up the national selection, as the RFEF indicates in its press release”is it written in this press release. “As we indicated in our private communication, we have always maintained and will always maintain an unquestionable commitment to the Spanish national team.” They explain that the current situation weighs on their health, their mind, therefore on their performance, and consequently the results of the selection, which justifies their withdrawal, ten months before the start of the World Cup, next major international event.
The players also claim that they never asked for the coach to leave, as the RFEF suggests: “We know that it is not our role, under any circumstances, to choose someone for this position.” Their action aimed, according to them, simply to highlight avenues for improvement and change in the management of the selection. “We want a firm commitment to a professional project in which all aspects will be taken into account to get the best performance from a group of players who can achieve greater goals”they assert, before concluding, scathingly: “We will not tolerate the infantilizing tone used by the RFEF at the end of its press release.”
Spain were among the favorites for Euro 2022 this summer in England. They were eliminated by the host country in the quarter-finals, in extra time. The next gathering of the Spanish national team is scheduled for early October, for a series of friendlies against Sweden and reigning world champions USA. With a workforce that today is impossible to predict.