Spanish Women's players break silence in stern response to RFEF claims | OneFootball

A group of Spain Women players have issued a response to the football federation’s statement regarding their decision to make themselves unavailable for selection.

On Thursday night, the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) announced that 15 players had requested not to be called up and that their reasons for doing so were due to their ’emotional state and physical health being significantly impacted’.

The RFEF went on to state that those in question would not be allowed to return to the national set-up until they ‘asked for forgiveness and they would not allow the coach and his staff’s position to be questioned’, with the players themselves now releasing their own response to chose claims.

“First of all, the players regret that the RFEF has made public a private communication that affects our health – which is part of our privacy, sent in response to the request of the Federation itself to know which of us did not want to be selected,” began the statement which was published to each player’s social media accounts.

“We have not received a response to that. Secondly, in no way have we RESIGNED from the Spanish national team as the RFEF claims in their official statement. As we said in our private communication, we have maintained and will continue to maintain an unquestionable commitment to the Spanish national team.

“That is why we requested in our communication sent to the RFEF not to be selected until situations that impact our emotional and personal state, our performance and, consequently, the results of the team and that could lead to undesirable injuries are resolved.

“Those are the reasons for this decision. We want a firm commitment to a professional project in which all aspects are taken care of to get the best performance from a group of players with whom we believe better goals can be achieved.

“We want the best for the RFEF, the women’s national team and for us in particular without being involved in a public war. We never asked for the dismissal of the coach as has been claimed. We understand that our work does involve choosing said position but to express our thoughts constructively and honestly.

“Does anyone think that eight months before a World Cup, a group of TOP-LEVEL PLAYERS, which is what we consider ourselves, take this decision, as has been publicly implied, on a whim or for blackmail?

“Asking not to be called up penalises our professional career, our wealth and, of course, building something important in women’s football. Getting to where we are now has taken years of effort from many people and there are still many things to improve as has been demonstrated recently.

“Lastly, we will not tolerate the infantile tone of the RFEF statement. We regret that we have to go to this extreme in order to advance a powerful and ambitious professional project for the present and future generations.”

Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas, who is currently sidelined through injury, joined the group of players in sending out that statement on Friday night but was not in the original group of 15 who sent the email with MARCA and AS both reporting that those players are as follows:

Ainhoa Moraza (Atlético), Patri Guijarro (Barcelona), Leila Ouahabi (Manchester City), Lucía García (Manchester United), Mapi León (Barcelona), Ona Batlle (Manchester United), Laia Aleixandri (Manchester City), Claudia Pina (Barcelona), Aitana Bonmati (Barcelona), Andrea Pereira (América), Mariona Caldentey (Barcelona), Sandra Paños (Barcelona), Lola Gallardo (Atlético), Nerea Eizaguirre (Real Sociedad), Amaiur Sarriegi (Real Sociedad)