Misa Rodríguez and Oihane Hernández leave the hotel towards Barajas airport, already concentrated with the national team.INMA FLORES
You can’t imagine a more unpleasant announcement of a squad list at Las Rozas. Never before have athletes greeted the call from the national team with so much bitterness. Not even some football players showed up to the meeting with the national team with such long faces.
The vast majority of the Spanish team players did not want to concentrate. Neither in Madrid, where some started, nor in Oliva, where they all met last night in a last-minute change of plans that distanced them from the media focus of Las Rozas, but also from those federation leaders with whom they will not be together Since the Rubiales case broke out, there has been another deal since the former president kissed striker Jenni Hermoso without consent and no one in the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) gave the player the minimum space for protection.
The 23 players called up, 19 of whom had signed a statement demanding structural changes in the association before it went back into the red, were not in the mood. But they reacted. All except Esther González, Gotham player (USA), who missed out due to injury. The first to arrive were those who came from Madrid, the last to arrive from Barcelona, late at Manises airport, including two of the most belligerent players in the federation: Patri Guijarro and Mapi León, who did not bite the bullet. Language, assuming she was “forced” to travel.
She and all of them showed up for the appointment feeling (once again) deceived and betrayed, forced by circumstances: by a federation that treats them like moody girls and does not assume that they will be given a facelift and some Promises are not enough. They are lazy to trust those who have lied to you before; by a coach who allowed public opinion to believe for a few moments that she had spoken to them and agreed with them about the appropriateness of engaging in the conversation; by some political representatives who had threatened the previous evening to apply the law – economic sanctions of between 3,000 and 30,000 euros and loss of license for a period of 2 to 15 years are envisaged – if the players fulfill their obligation to the team not comply National.
More information
They had made it clear that they did not want to be summoned. And to make matters worse, Jenni Hermoso was the only one not on the list. “To protect her,” new national coach Montse Tomé said after explaining that she had spoken to her – “We are with Jenni on everything,” she explained – and suggesting that her absence had been amicable. Lie. “To protect myself from what or who?” replied the soccer player from Mexico, where she plays. It was one of many other lies or half-truths in the first public appearance of the coach, who for five years was the second to Jorge Vilda, who has now been fired and accused of his friendship with Rubiales.
Tomé’s speech on Monday, in which he resorted to friendly concepts, adapted the tone to the circumstances and alluded to a change of stage, hid many pitfalls. As soon as his press conference ended, what appeared to be a shapeshifter turned out to be simple makeup. He talked about empathy, the importance of communication and a professional and demanding work atmosphere. But I hadn’t spoken to the players, at least not all of them, or listened to them. He had not addressed his discomfort or his need not to return until he felt he was in a safe work environment. This was confirmed by the president of the CSD himself, Víctor Francos, after initial discussions with the footballers. “You are wrong. I saw sadness, regret and tiredness; no resentment, no bad manners. A player told me that she is not doing well mentally. “You are tired,” he said in statements to La Sexta.
And he added: “What cannot continue in the association is behavior that worries and scares the players.” “They don’t finish everything because they are afraid of what could happen.” Francos played with that , without providing further details, referred to the federation’s threats that those they describe as instigators and key players in the coercion of Hermoso and who want to exclude them before continuing to play in the national team would file a complaint against the players for defamation. Francos pointed out, without mentioning his own name, Andreu Camps, general secretary of the RFEF and Rubiales’ right-hand man at the time, the federation’s strategist, whom the World Cup players fear for their behavior and who they believe is also responsible for it is Tomé’s first list, the latest installment in this complex story of accusations and betrayals since a year ago when 15 female athletes supported a movement to quit the Spanish women’s soccer team in a frustrated attempt to push for structural reform of the body that governs Spanish soccer. A year later they insisted on achieving it.
This new refusal by players to be called up is explained by the open crisis since former president Luis Rubiales planted a kiss on Jenni Hermoso in the middle of the World Cup celebrations. But it also has a lot to do with the association’s inflexibility and inability to accept that footballers and society demand to shake the foundations of an association quietly governed by territorial leaders determined to maintain their status quo rather than to respond to the demands of the athletes. Since the Rubiales case, the former president himself, who resigned three weeks later, and the former coach Jorge Vilda have barely left the RFEF, but none of the federation officials who denounce the footballers for their behavior have fallen, those whom they accuse Hermoso of coercion , pressure and sexist behavior.
More information
Francos also referred to this: “I already told Pedro Rocha [presidente interino] that without profound and structural changes there will be no good solution to this conflict. I cannot speak more clearly. The change that has begun knows no way back.” And with this commitment, he sat at the table with the footballers – the meeting lasted until after eleven in the evening – and wanted to convince them not to give up playing while working on a reorganization of the RFEF is being worked on.
The example of Carlos Alcaraz
Víctor Francos, established as a mediator in the conflict between the Spanish Football Association and the players of the national team, met upon his arrival in Oliva first with the new national coach Montse Tomé and then, when the group was complete, with the players, to whom he listened and the guaranteed profound changes in the Federation. Before the trip to Valencia, Francos had already explained that he wanted to convince Tomé to cancel the call of those players who did not want to travel to Gothenburg (Sweden) for Friday’s Nations League game against Sweden. In this way, they do not face any fines or loss of their association license.
As a current example, the CSD cited the departure of tennis player Carlos Alcaraz from the Davis Cup team, who said he did not feel fit for the qualifying rounds against Spain after his defeat in the semi-finals of the US Open. David Ferrer, captain of the Davis, immediately and without conflict crossed him off the list.
You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes on Facebook and Twitteror sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.