Jenni Hermoso SLAMS Spanish FA selection claims and insists ‘nothing has changed’ as new head coach Montse Tome suggests they are trying to ‘protect’ the World Cup star by not picking her
- Jenni Hermoso has issued a scathing statement against the Spanish Football Federation
- The World Cup winner was left out of the upcoming Spanish women’s selection
- Listen to the latest episode of the Mail Sport podcast ‘It all begins!’
Jenni Hermoso has hit back at suggestions from new Spain women’s head coach Montse Tome that she had not been picked for the upcoming Nations League squad in a bid to ‘protect’ her.
The 33-year-old joins a host of World Cup winners left out of the squad after many declined to be called up due to the ongoing crisis surrounding the women’s team and the Spanish Football Federation.
According to reports in Spain, two Spanish FA chiefs are now preparing to sue the 39 stars of the women’s team for defamation after refusing a call-up to the national team.
Meanwhile, Luis Rubiales – who kissed Hermoso on the medal podium after the World Cup final – announced his resignation, although he continues to plead his innocence as he battles charges of sexual assault and coercion.
Tome initially explained Hermoso’s absence, saying: ‘We stand with Jenni in everything and with all the players. The best way to help them is to be with them and listen to them. The best way to protect her is this way. I’ve worked with her a lot.’
Jenni Hermoso has hit back at the Spanish Football Federation after not being picked for Spain’s upcoming Nations League matches
Spain’s new head coach Montse Tome explained that Hermoso’s negligence was to ‘protect’ the player
Hermoso responded by dismissing the FA’s explanation for her absence in a lengthy reply on social media in which she branded the decision as ‘a new strategy of division and manipulation’.
“Protect me from what?” Hermoso began her scathing statement with.
‘Let’s be clear; It was claimed today that the environment within the federation would be safe for my colleagues to participate again, but at the same press conference it was announced that they were not calling me as a means of protecting me.
‘Protect me from what? And from whom? We have been looking for protection from the RFEF for weeks – months even – but it has never come.
“The people who are now asking us to trust them are the same ones who today made public the list of players who asked not to be drafted,” Hermoso said.
“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 evidence that shows that even today nothing has changed.
Hermoso (center) has labeled the selection decision as ‘a new strategy of division and manipulation’
“I would like to once again express my full support to my colleagues who are surprised and forced to respond to a new unfortunate situation caused by the people who continue to make decisions within the RFEF.
“This is why we fight and why we do it this way,” she added.
Hermoso has been in the spotlight since she was kissed on the medal podium by now-resigning Spanish FA president Rubiales during the World Cup final.
Spain travel to take on Sweden in their first Nations League match on Friday before hosting Switzerland in Cordoba.