Nations League: Spanish world champions continue international strike

DA kissing scandal involving association president Luis Rubiales, who has since resigned, plunged Spanish women’s football into chaos after the recent World Cup. After being nominated for the first two games of the UEFA Nations League, the national players, led by world footballer Alexia Putellas, unexpectedly announced late on Monday that they would continue their international strike. The grotesque thing about this is that a few hours earlier, new national team coach Monse Thomé assured reporters in Madrid that she had spoken to the players she nominated and that none of them were allowed to take part in Friday’s matches in Sweden and next Tuesday at home against Switzerland refused.

Rubiales kissed player Jennifer Hermoso on the lips without even being asked at the medal ceremony after Spain’s final triumph over England on August 20 in Sydney, causing huge outrage around the world. FIFA suspended the 46-year-old footballer for 90 days and launched an investigation. After much resistance, the official recently resigned as head of the RFEF. The Spanish judicial system has launched an investigation.

Players demand new resignations

But this was not enough for the players. The 21 members of the world champion team and 18 other leading players called, among other things, for the removal of RFEF interim boss Pedro Rocha and other officials close to Rubiales. To emphasize their demands, they called an international strike.

After the nomination of 15 world champions and the words of Tome, Spain considered that the strike was cancelled. However, the communique issued shortly before midnight by Aitana Bonmati, named the best player of the World Cup, remains fully valid.” Hermoso was not assigned to Tome. As for the reasons why the 33-year-old footballer was not nominated, the coach who replaced Jorge Vilda, who was fired after the World Cup in the wake of the scandal, said that they wanted to “protect” Hermoso.

The Association issued an ultimatum

According to media reports, the association only offered the striking players personnel changes in the organization only on Sunday, but also presented them with an ultimatum, which expired at midnight on the night from Sunday to Monday. Accordingly, the RFEF threatened fines and multi-year bans for those players who refused to play for La Roja. There has been no official confirmation of this information at the moment.

On Monday, the RFEF issued a communiqué on the occasion of the squad’s nomination and stressed: “We guarantee a safe environment for players and are committed to an atmosphere of mutual trust to work together to ensure women’s football develops even stronger into the future.”

To this day, Rubiales maintains that the kiss immediately after winning the World Cup was mutually consensual. But Hermoso said she felt “the victim of an impulsive, sexist and inappropriate act to which I did not consent.” The player filed a complaint, which allowed the prosecutor’s office to file a criminal complaint in the State Court. The investigating judge must now decide whether Rubiales should be put in the dock. He faces up to four years in prison.