Spain’s striking female football players face fines, disqualifications

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - The head of Spain’s National Sports Council warned on Tuesday that the football players refusing to play for the national women’s team could face fines or be disqualified from playing for years.

“If the players don’t show up, the government should apply the law. It’s a real shame, but the law is the law,” Victor Franco, head of the sports council, told Spanish broadcaster Cadena Ser.

Under Spanish law, fines range from €3,000 ($3,210) to €30,000 euros and they could have their licenses revoked for up to five years.

Franco said that the council is “clearly on the side of the players” and criticized Spain’s football federation for calling upon players who had already said they refuse to play for team Spain.

On Monday, Spain’s national football federation, formerly headed by Luis Rubiales, who faces criminal charges for kissing and coercing player Jennifer Hermoso, announced the new team.

Hours later, several of the team’s top players shared a statement saying they are still refusing to represent Spain nationally until there are deeper changes in the federation. They also said they are studying the legal repercussions of their continued strike. According to El Pais, at least 15 of the 23 called-upon players refuse to play.

Notably, Hermoso, the player who is pressing charges against Rubiales, was not called to play. The new women’s team coach Montse Tome justified the move by saying it was to “protect” Hermoso.

Hermoso later released a strongly worded statement slamming the move.

“Protect me from what? And from whom? We have been searching for weeks - months, even - for protection from the federation that never came. The people who now ask us to trust them are the same ones who today disclosed the list of players of have asked NOT to be called up,” said Hermoso, adding that it was another tactic to manipulate and intimidate Spain’s female players.

“It is yet more irrefutable proof that even today, nothing has changed,” said Hermoso.

While the federation has sacked the coach of the women’s team and Rubiales stepped down after being suspended by FIFA, the organization is now headed by Pedro Rocha, who Spanish media call Rubiales’ right-hand man.

Even before the kiss scandal that rocked Spanish football, female players had publicly criticized the federation for failing to give them proper training and not treating them with respect.

Franco of Spain’s sports council said he will speak to the federation today to try to find a solution.

“Threats and intimidation won’t achieve anything … We are worried about the spectacle that we're making of ourselves,” he said, adding that despite the calls from the Spanish government, the federation has not made any deep reforms.

Spain’s women’s team is supposed to play Sweden in the UEFA Women’s Nations League on Friday.

Swedish midfielder Filippa Angeldahl says her team will support the Spanish players. "If they feel they need to boycott to make something happen, it is clear that we support them,” she told Swedish media. “It must be really difficult for them to reject an opportunity like this.”