21 of the 23 footballers called up by national coach Montse Tomé have shown their “will” to stay in the world champion’s camp and will travel to Gothenburg to face Sweden at the start of the Nations League, as confirmed by the president of the Higher Sports Council (CSD), Víctor Francos.
“21 players have shown their willingness to stay. I have to be honest, the players are in a difficult moment and I think it is good news to say that the women’s team will play the two games with guarantees and victories,” Francos told the media after meet with the players for almost six hours in a hotel in the Valencian town of Oliva.
The president of the CSD confessed that he had “very much appreciated the gesture” to the footballers. “I think it honors them,” he admitted. “And I want to be forceful about one thing, there are two who do not feel motivated or strong, but there must be maximum respect for some and others. We have a great team, world champions and we must have respect for the group of players “he indicated.
The leader, who stressed that this meeting took place in a “friendly tone” and where all parties were able to “speak with absolute freedom”, stressed that two players “have requested the possibility of leaving the concentration for reasons of lack of spirit and discomfort.” staff”. “This is absolutely respectable and the CSD, the RFEF and the selector have agreed that the formula to be used does not entail sanctions, we do not want to enter into a drift of sanctions,” he warned.
Francos reiterated that although the law “says that there must be sanctions” if one does not attend the selection, the Government has always been clear that “it did not want to and that it was going to try to avoid it.” “They haven’t told us,” he concluded, when asked if the players had felt pressured to attend because of this possibility.
“The first thing we have conveyed is that whoever is not comfortable for whatever reason knows that they will not find themselves in either the RFEF or the CSD with a sanctioning process,” he stated. Furthermore, he asserted that in her presence, Montse Tomé’s position “has not been in the debate.”
Francos celebrated “the will to build” in a meeting where they discussed “all the issues that needed to be talked about” and where they also reached “a series of agreements drafted and signed by the RFEF and the CSD that will go together.” “. Thus, “a three-part Mixed Commission will be established to be able to monitor these agreements,” detailing that those that “affect” merely its organization have to do with issues of “gender policies, advancing equal pay or the quality of the infrastructure”.
The president of the Council stressed that the players had shown “their concern about the need to make profound changes”, which the federative entity “has committed to making immediately”, although he did not refer to any in particular, leaving that communication in hands of the federation.
Francos acknowledged that he “didn’t” know the internationals. “The first thing I did was introduce myself and tell them that if I had done something wrong or had to do something different, they should tell me. It was a conversation of absolute sincerity and that’s what they showed us, and they also thanked us for the meeting because they were able to express themselves calmly,” said the leader, who clarified that the CSD had achieved “nothing.” “It was all the parts, what could be a disaster is not going to be,” he stated.
This puts an end to a very long and complicated day for the internationals called by Montse Tomé last Monday since a large number of them publicly insisted that their position regarding Friday had not changed, when they made their resignation clear in a statement. to go with the national team if there were no deeper changes in the RFEF.
However, faced with the possibility of being sanctioned by the Sports Law if they appeared, although they defended that the call had not complied “in a timely manner” with FIFA regulations, they finally decided to appear, although not in the City of Football. from Las Rozas (Madrid) as usual.
Thus, in the midst of a lot of misinformation, those from Real Madrid (Misa Rodríguez, Tere Abelleira, Oihane Hernández, Olga Carmona and Athenea del Castillo) and Atlético de Madrid (Eva Navarro) gathered with Montse Tomé and her staff in a hotel in Madrid near the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport, from where they left after noon towards Valencia, specifically to the town of Oliva.
That was the place where the rest of the internationals traveled from different points, including forward Lucía García and defender Laia Aleixandri, who traveled from Manchester (England), while Esther González, who had to fly from the United States, She finally lost due to injury and was replaced by Cristina Martín-Prieto for a concentration where she had not scheduled training for Tuesday afternoon.
In the midst of the uncertainty, a new problem arose, that of the delay of the plane that had to take the FC Barcelona players (Alexia Putellas, Mapi León, Irene Paredes, Patri Guijarro, Aitana Bonmatí, Cata Coll, Ona Batlle and Mariona Caldentey) from Barcelona and which caused the planned meeting with Víctor Francos to begin at night and last until practically dawn on Wednesday.
