Last year in Tokyo, Simone Biles put the spotlight on athletes’ mental health and the necessity to work on mental maintenance, as well as physical, when she withdrew from competition due to her mental state. The trend has continued across professional sports and now many of the top female soccer players from Spain have written a letter to not be called up to the national team with claims the training methods used by the head coach are damaging to their mental, emotional and physical wellbeing.
The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) shared in a statement last week that it received letters from 15 players with complaints of mistreatment from national team coach Jorge Vilda and his staff. The RFEF shared the players who had contacted them said they would be resigning from the team if the decision to leave Jorge Vilda at the helm did not change.
According to the RFEF statement, the refusal to attend a training camp is punishable by a two to five year disqualification, but the organization has said it will not pressure the athletes who are requesting not to be called up. The statement goes on to read, “Directly, it will not summon the soccer players who do not want to wear the Spain shirt. The Federation will only have committed footballers even if they have to play with youth.”
Spanish soccer standout Alexia Putellas took to social media to refute the claims made by RFEF that she and her other 14 teammates do not want to represent Spain saying, “In no case did we resign from the Spanish national team, like the RFEF claims in their official statement. Like we said in our private email, we’ve maintained, continue to maintain and will continue to maintain an unquestionable commitment to the Spanish national team.”
The 2021 Ballon d’Or winner went on to say, “That is why we request in our letter to the RFEF not to be called up to the national team until it remedies the situations that affect our mental and personal well being, our performance, and in consequence, the results of the of the national team that could lead to undesirable injuries. These are the reasons why we’ve made this decision.”
The Spanish national team, who is ranked 8th in the world, will now be forced to look at its up and comers to join the senior team. While the U-20 was named World Champions this summer and the U-19 earned the honor of European champions, the level of play at the lower level is vastly different from senior national team play and could greatly impact Spain’s world ranking.
With preparation for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup well under way, the changes to the roster will certainly alter the training approach for Vilda and his staff. Prior to these 15 players submitting their letters, Spain was considered a favorite for next summer’s World Cup, but an unfortunate finish in the European Championships at the hands of England seemed to have started the change in the trajectory of the team.
Following their elimination, rumblings around the team began expressing the team’s distrust in Vilda after a second half strategy change seemed to cost them the game against England. Since then, players had shared their concerns with Spain soccer federation president, Luis Rubiales, but did not seem to be taken seriously which led to the letters being written. The RFEF is still standing by Vilda who has been the head coach since 2015 saying that those players who wrote letters will only be able to return “if they accept their mistake and ask for forgiveness.”
While the RFEF is clearly not standing by the women, U.S. Women’s National Team star, Megan Rapinoe, has taken to social media to share her support. “You got a 16th [player] standing with you in [US flag emoji] This many players together like this is so powerful. We should all listen.”
With the situation clearly escalating in the last several days and international attention now on the RFEF, it will be interesting to see how long Spain can stand by its decision to not even look into the claims or stand by the women who have made the team the powerhouse it currently is.
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