Spain players arrive at camp after Hermoso accuses federation of threatening World Cup winners

Some of Spain's World Cup-winning players started reporting to training camp on Tuesday despite not wanting to be called up for the national team while fighting for changes in the soccer federation.

Local media showed some of the players arriving at the hotel where the team will stay in Madrid, with their arrival coming a day after new coach Montse Tomé ignored their decision not to play until their demands for reform at the federation were met.

The players had said in a statement on Monday that they were caught by surprise by the call-up and did not plan to end their boycott, but those who don't show up risk breaking a Spanish sports law that requires athletes to answer the call of national teams unless there are circumstances that impede them from playing, such as an injury.

It was the latest embarrassing chapter in Spanish football in a crisis ignited by former federation president Luis Rubiales kissing player Jenni Hermoso on the lips after Spain won the Women's World Cup last month.

Hermoso, who said she did not consent to the kiss during the awards ceremony, accused the federation of trying to intimidate the players by picking them for the national team even though they asked not to be called up.

She said in a statement early Tuesday that the federation's decision to call up nearly half of the 39 players who said they would not play for the national team as a protest was “irrefutable proof” that “nothing has changed.”

The players had made it clear that they wouldn't come back until their demands for significant change and new leadership in the federation were met, but Tomé on Tuesday picked 15 of the players who helped Spain win its first Women's World Cup last month.

Tomé left Hermoso off the list “as a way to protect her,” she said.

“Protect me from what?” Hermoso said. “A claim was made 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.”

Tomé said she talked to Hermoso and to the other players, and said she was confident that they would all report to training camp on Tuesday.

The squad announcement had been originally planned for Friday but was postponed because no agreement had been reached with the players.

Spain’s acting minister of culture and sport, Miquel Iceta, said Tuesday that the government would try to help find a solution for the impasse.

“We ask the federation to fix the inadequacies of this anomalous call-up and to change the federative structures so that it becomes a space of security, competitiveness and professionalism to which the players and all Spaniards are entitled to,” Iceta told local media. “What you can't do is to continue committing injustices and harming players who have given their best and earned a world title for the first time in history."

The government said it was talking to the players, and the president of the country's sports council — the government's highest sports authority — was expected to meet with them sometime on Tuesday.

On Monday, the federation released a statement in which it publicly reiterated to the players its commitment to structural changes.

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