MADRID, September 18 (.) –
Coach Montse Tomé will finally be presented this Monday (4:30 p.m.) in the Luis Aragonés room at the Ciudad del Fútbol in Las Rozas (Madrid) as the new Spanish women’s coach and will offer her first squad list, after the event had to be postponed on Friday for the statement issued by 39 footballers, including 21 of the 23 world champions, calling for changes in the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF).
Tomé’s presentation, which was going to take place on Friday at the same stage, and the call-up of 23 players for the first two days of the Nations League was postponed due to the publication of a statement from the players in which they once again claimed “forceful changes in leadership positions” and a “restructuring of the women’s football organization chart” of the RFEF.
On August 25, after Luis Rubiales initially refused to resign as president of the RFEF, 81 footballers signed a document to demand profound changes in said institution. Until that happened, the 23 new world champions and 58 other players would renounce any call-up.
After the resignation of Luis Rubiales as president of the RFEF and the dismissal of Jorge Vilda as coach, 39 Spanish players, including Alexia Putellas, Jenni Hermoso and Aitana Bonmatí, made public this Friday the statement calling for more changes in the RFEF. It was not signed by two world champions like the Madrid players Athenea del Castillo and Claudia Zornoza; The last of them announced on Friday that she is retiring from the national team to focus on her career at the white club.
The international signatories of the statement consider that the resignation of Luis Rubiales and the dismissal of Vilda “are not enough” and recalled that in the meetings with the RFEF they expressed “in a clear and forceful manner” those who understood that they were “basic to be able to advance and to reach a structure that does not tolerate or take part in such degrading events” as the episode of Rubiales’ kiss with Jenni Hermoso.
Spain will face Sweden at home next Friday, September 22, and Switzerland, in Córdoba, on Tuesday, September 26, in its first two games of the Nations League.
