Analysis: No means no, or how Montse Tome’s first squad list led Spain into further chaos
A month ago, ex-RFEF president Luis Rubiales kissed Jenni Hermoso, signing a contract of death — as the outrage unfolded, the Spaniard was later forced to resign. His right-hand man, Jorge Vilda and former manager of the Spanish national team, was sacked.
Rubiales departure was essential, one of five key changes demanded by the ’39’ (they’ve gained some numbers) but not sufficient. Even as Montse Tome — the first female national team coach in Spain’s history — was appointed, the scandal didn’t slow much. Alexia Putellas, Aitana Bonmati and a number of heavyweights explicitly requested to not be selected by Tome — they wanted to action rather than words from interim President Pedro Rocha, hand-picked by Rubiales. Those included the restructuring of the marketing and communication teams, as well as the hierarchy in women’s football.
From bad to worse, Tome unveiled her list of the twenty-three players she had selected to face Sweden and Switzerland in their Nations League fixtures. This list contained some of the ‘15’ players, but not Jenni Hermoso. Tome claimed that she ‘talked with the players’ and that she was ‘protecting’ Hermoso — what from exactly remains unclear, as Hermoso herself declared. The newly-appointed manager was also asked whether any player had requested to not be selected — the answer was a clear no.
A camp where all the twenty-three called up players were supposed to show up in Oliva (near Valencia) was ordered, and the situation became unclear; would players show up? If they didn’t, threats that they’d be suspended for years did not look good either. Some players were still in the other hotel, in Las Rozas (Madrid), some were in Valencia, and the RFEF had to re-book tickets for the players in
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