Picture Credit: Twitter
Spanish midfielder Jenni Hermoso slammed head coach Montse Tome's decision to drop her from the Nations League squad for games against Sweden and Switzerland. Hermoso was involved in a controversy after former Royal Spanish Football Federation President Luis Rubliaes kissed her after La Roja’s Women’s World Cup win in Australia.
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The Spanish Women’s team created history by beating England 1-0 in the final thanks to an early first-half goal by captain Olga Carmona. But after this victory, as players collected their winners’ medals, Rubliaes kissed Hermoso, which was later described as non-consensual by the midfielder. Hermoso also filed a sexual harassment suit against Rubliaes, who eventually resigned from his post last week.
Similarly, another controversial figure in Spanish women’s football, head coach Jorge Vilda was also sacked with his assistant Montse Tome being promoted to the role. Hence as the Spanish women’s squad for the Nations League was announced, Hermoso wasn’t included in the squad and Tome justified it by stating he wanted to ‘protect’ the 33-year-old after the controversy.
Reacting to these reasons, Hermoso released a statement on X (formerly Twitter), calling out the Tome and Spanish FA to improve the conditions for the women in the federation. The said statement said, "Protect me from what? Let’s be clear: a claim was made today stating that the environment within the federation would be safe for my colleagues to rejoin yet at the same press conference it was announced that they were not calling me as a means to protect me.
"The players are certain that this is yet another strategy of division and manipulation to intimidate and threaten us with legal repercussions and economic sanctions. It is yet more irrefutable proof that shows that even today, nothing has changed.
"I want to show once again my full support to my colleagues who have been caught by surprise and forced to react to another unfortunate situation caused by people who continue to make decisions within the RFEF. This is why we are fighting and why we are doing it in this way," the statement continued.
