Spain players to end boycott after being promised ‘profound changes’

All but two of Spain’s World Cup-winning players have agreed to end their boycott of the women’s national team, the country’s high council for sports has said, after a marathon six-hour meeting that also brought an agreement from the football federation to make “immediate and profound changes” to its structure.

The two players who have decided to refuse the call-up will not face sanctions, Spain’s secretary for sports and president of the high council for sports, Víctor Francos, told reporters in the early hours of Wednesday.

“The first thing we told them was that whoever is not comfortable, for whatever reason, should know that neither the federation nor the high council for sports will apply a sanctioning process,” he said.

The meeting in Oliva, near Valencia, came one day after a chaotic call-up during which the team’s new coach, Monte Tomé, ignored players’ decision not to play until major changes are made to the federation.

Instead Tomé – who Francos said was not part of Wednesday’s meeting – named 15 of the World Cup-winning players in her squad for Nations League fixtures this month.

The majority of players initially responded with plans to continue to their boycott. But the threat of fines of up to €30,000 (£26,000) and the possibility of being banned from appearing for their clubs seemingly left many with little choice; footage shot on Tuesday appeared to show a number of the players stony-faced as they boarded a bus for the training camp. When the goalkeeper Misa Rodríguez was asked by a reporter whether she was happy to have been called up by Tomé, her answer was simple: “No,” she said.

The Spanish government, which criticised the federation for making a “fool” of the country, found itself forced to intervene. Francos said after emerging from the meeting early on Wednesday that 21 players had shown a willingness to stay.

“I have to be honest; the players are going through a complicated moment and I think it is good news to be able to say that the women’s national team will play both matches with guarantees and victories,” he said, in reference to games against Sweden and Switzerland. The Nations League will determine which European teams qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

“I want to be blunt about one thing,” Francos said. “There are two [players] who do not feel up to it, but the players all have the utmost respect for each other. We have a great team, a world champion team, and we must respect all the players.”

The tumultuous call up was the latest ordeal suffered by players in their long-running battle for change at the federation; a struggle that burst into public view last month after Luis Rubiales grabbed Jenni Hermoso by the head, pulled her towards him and kissed her on the lips at the World Cup medal ceremony.

On Wednesday Francos said the players had stressed the need for “profound changes” in the football federation, adding: “The federation has committed to making those changes immediately.”

Hours earlier, the broadcaster Cope said the federation was preparing to “imminently fire” several people it described as part of the inner circle of former president Rubiales.

During the meeting, agreements were also hashed out to tackle players’ longstanding demands for equality when it came to issues such as salaries and infrastructure for female football, the president of players’ union Futpro, Amanda Gutiérrez, told reporters. “We want the org chart to be exactly the same as that of the men’s team,” she said.

Although she and Francos declined to give more details as to the contents of the agreements, Gutiérrez said their progress would be tracked by a commission, made up of players, the federation and the high council for sport.

“It is the beginning of a long road ahead of us,” said Gutiérrez. “Once again, they [the players] have shown themselves to be coherent, and the vast majority have decided to stay for the sake of this agreement.”