A dispute between the Spanish women\u2019s soccer team and the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) appears to have reached a breakthrough after the two parties, along with the government\u2019s High Council of Sport (CSD), came to a series of agreements. <\/p>\n
Earlier this week, 20 players named to the national team squad reiterated their refusal to play in two upcoming UEFA Women\u2019s Nations League fixtures, including against Sweden on Friday. <\/p>\n
However, 21 of the 23 players selected in the squad for the upcoming games have now agreed to play and will travel to Sweden, according to a statement from CSD President V\u00edctor Francos. <\/p>\n
Two players, Barcelona Femen\u00ed stars Mapi Le\u00f3n and Patricia Guijarro, have asked to leave the squad, saying that their situation is \u201cdifferent than for the rest of our colleagues.\u201d <\/p>\n
Francos told reporters in the early hours of Wednesday that a \u201cvery solid agreement\u201d had been reached between all parties and promised immediate changes in Spanish soccer regarding \u201cthe policies on gender equality, advancing on equal pay, advancing on the equity of the quality of infrastructure for sport and, in this case, women\u2019s football.\u201d <\/p>\n
He added that the players will not face any sanctions having initially refused to play in the two upcoming fixtures. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe parties \u2026 reached a point where what could have been a disaster won\u2019t be and what could have been bad news looks like it won\u2019t be,\u201d said Francos. <\/p>\n
A Mixed Commission featuring representatives for the players, RFEF and CSD will also be created to implement further changes in the future. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn that committee, we\u2019ve agreed on some powers that cover all of the points that [the players] have spent so much time demanding, like the changes in the women\u2019s football body, the strategic plan of women\u2019s football and the rest of the changes we\u2019ve been talking about these days,\u201d Amanda Guti\u00e9rrez, president of players\u2019 union FUTPRO, told reporters on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
Montse Tom\u00e9, who replaced Jorge Vilda as head coach of the women\u2019s national team in the wake of the Rubiales controversy, is set to remain in her position having met with the players privately, according to Rafael del Amo, the head of women\u2019s football at RFEF. <\/p>\n
Asked about the apparent misleading statements from Tom\u00e9 at her Monday press conference regarding Hermoso\u2019s absence from the squad to \u201cprotect\u201d the player, del Amo told reporters: \u201cI think at this moment we have to protect her from the pressure that can arise. In the end, she is a player we trust fully. We believe it to be this way and we must be respected.\u201d <\/p>\n
Tom\u00e9 had selected the squad for the upcoming games against Sweden and Switzerland, despite the players stating their \u201cfirm will to not be called up for motives which are justified.\u201d <\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday about leaving the squad alongside Guijarro, Le\u00f3n said: \u201cIt\u2019s true that the situation for Patri and for me is different than for the rest of our colleagues. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that these aren\u2019t the ways or forms to come back \u2026 This is a process. We\u2019re happy because it\u2019s also true that there are changes happening. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve reached another port. Little by little, changes are being made and in this we\u2019re totally supporting our colleagues as we\u2019ve been doing from outside during all this time.\u201d <\/p>\n
For her part, Guijarro said: \u201cThey\u2019re working on those changes and we\u2019re with our colleagues, but yes, it\u2019s true they haven\u2019t been made yet, but they\u2019re working on it. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s quite difficult and hard to be here, and with how everything happened, mentally, you\u2019re just not in a place to be able to be here.\u201d <\/p>\n
Both Le\u00f3n and Guijarro are part of a group of players dubbed \u2018Las 15<\/em> (The 15)\u2019 which have been in conflict with RFEF since over a year ago and the vast majority were left out of the World Cup squad in July and August. <\/p>\n Wednesday\u2019s announcement is the latest development in a long-running saga between the Spanish women\u2019s team players, who won a first Women\u2019s World Cup title last month, and RFEF. <\/p>\n The tension between the two parties intensified after Luis Rubiales, the former RFEF president, gave an unwanted kiss to Spanish player Jennifer Hermoso during the World Cup final medal ceremony in Sydney. <\/p>\n The players\u2019 dissatisfaction with the federation dates back over a year when 15 members of the senior women\u2019s squad (\u2018Las 15<\/em>\u2019), sent personally signed letters to RFEF saying that they would no longer play for the national team unless there were wholesale changes made throughout the coaching staff. <\/p>\n Of the 15 players who signed the letters, only three were in Spain\u2019s World Cup squad: Mariona Caldentey, Aitana Bonmat\u00ed and Ona Batlle.\u00a0<\/strong>That trio was included in Tom\u00e9\u2019s squad announced on Monday, along with Le\u00f3n and Guijarro. <\/p>\n Despite those off-field struggles, a young Spanish side produced a superb run at the Women\u2019s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, defeating England in the final to lift a first title. <\/p>\n The achievement was subsequently overshadowed by Rubiales\u2019 actions during the medal ceremony and the fallout which followed, culminating in the ex-soccer boss resigning as RFEF president on September 11. <\/p>\n However, now that Vilda and Rubiales have left their positions, RFEF hopes to kick-start a new chapter in women\u2019s soccer. <\/p>\n On Monday before announcing the squad list, it released a statement underlining its commitment to enforce changes in the organization. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s evident that the Federation, society and the very players are aligned with this same objective: the renewal and beginning of a new era where football is the great winner of all of this process,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n\n A dispute between the Spanish women\u2019s soccer team and the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) appears to have reached a breakthrough after the two parties, along with the government\u2019s High Council of Sport (CSD), came to a series of agreements. Earlier this week, 20 players named to the national team squad reiterated their refusal to <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8904,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8903","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} How we got here<\/h2>\n