Head of women’s football within the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Rafael del Amo, claims that they have done enough to see the 80 players that said they wanted structural changes return.
This Friday Montse Tome is due to give her first squad list as Spain manager, but there has been no movement on the side of the players to indicate whether they will accept the call-up or not.
Del Amo resigned from his position (he has since returned) as head of the women’s game before former President Luis Rubiales made his infamous ‘I’m not resigning speech’, before resigning on Sunday night. He claims he also told Rubiales that his time was up as president, but he was alone in making that demand.
Since, interim President Pedro Rocha has dismissed former manager Jorge Vilda, while promising structural reforms and improved conditions that had been demanded by the players. In an interview with Cadena SER, del Amo claimed that those improvements, namely making the organisation around the team more professional, had already come into place.
“We already had those conditions before the ’15’ mess. The only problem has been Jenni, they haven’t told us anything about the rest. We were world champions for a reason; they have had everything just like the boys.”
He also believes that the exits of Rubiales and Vilda are sufficient changes to appease the Spain players, who are only asking for the bare minimum.
“I think that in terms of restoring the honour of Jenni, it is enough. With the dismissals of Rubiales and Vilda their honoor has been restored. Nothing else is being negotiated, they have everything. The conditions they had in the World Cup will continue to be maintained, that’s how it is. We have been champions and we have not stood still. We have to continue growing, innovating and looking forward.”
It remains to be seen how the players react to the news. Certainly Olga Carmona appears to hint that the conditions at the World Cup were indeed up to standard, but equally, there are currently no coaches on Tome’s staff, no coaches for the youth categories and no sporting director. It is also uncertain how long Tome will be in charge for.
