The long and tortuous struggle of the athletes | Sports

“I accuse!…”. The barrage of published and unpublished opinion on the Rubiales case has been aligned with the headline of the famous article by Émile Zola in 1898. The wave of accusatory opinions was presumed after what happened in the box (for my balls), in the grass (player on the shoulder) and on the podium of the Sydney Olympic Games (the kiss on the lips to Hermoso), also in the interview with Rubiales that same Sunday at the Cope, in his exculpatory video farce and in his closing ranks during the Federation Assembly.

It is clear: it is impossible to embarrass this man, like so many others of his ilk. But the die is cast and the condemnation is already a fact. Possibly there is no harsher punishment than the rejection of the majority of Spanish society, beyond the suspension by FIFA, which can be decided by the Administrative Court of Sport (TAD), the Federation itself (RFEF) and justice ordinary.

Rubiales had presided over the RFEF since 2018 and previously the Association of Spanish Soccer Players (AFE) since 2010. Had no one noticed the form and substance of how he acted? Did nobody try to stop him despite the indications and complaints against unethical actions and various scandals? Managers, coaches, players and the press saw it, we saw it, and as if nothing had happened. Many even revered him and many still dance the water for him, although that majority is already a minority. Many media highlighted, criticized and in their own way denounced some of the scams and that double standard for which one day a super contract was signed to play the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia, with formidable commissions and Piqué involved, and another A complaint from his uncle Juan, former director of the RFEF Cabinet, was known for the organization of parties and orgies in a chalet in Salobreña paid for by the RFEF, as well as other personal expenses of the president. The complaint in 2016 by Tamara Ramos, AFE’s marketing director, is shocking. She sued the Federation and attached among the evidence Rubiales’ comments such as: “Don’t pay attention to this pregnant woman. Her neurons have gone away ”, or“ come on, you have come to put on your knee pads ”.

Until the kiss the light was not made. Before, nobody faced the dark empire of Rubiales. But since that flash, the turn is dizzying. Víctor Francos, the president of the Higher Sports Council (CSD), fell short when he said that we are ready for this to be the Me Too of Spanish football, since we can now talk about another global Me Too. Somehow, Spain won two World Cups, the soccer one and the shock wave produced in the fight for equality between people and to eliminate any form of discrimination or violence against women.

The fight is old, that of women and athletes who stood up, almost always in solitude and helplessness. Carmen Valero, two-time world cross-country champion in 1976 and 1977 and the first Spanish Olympic athlete, underlined this in 2017, when the 25th anniversary of the Barcelona Games had passed: “Julio Bravo, the team leader when I ran in the 1976 World Cup, it was pathetic. The day before he told us: ‘I have nothing to say to you. You are assed and busty. Whatever you do, it will be fine.’ When I won I said to him: ‘Now what?’ How could the sport work with rabble like that?

Theresa Zabell, gold in sailing with Patricia Guerra in Barcelona 92 ​​and with Begoña Vía Dufresne in Atlanta 96, described in that same report: “When I started sailing, there were no women’s changing rooms. I have experienced the struggle of women firsthand, as an athlete and as a sports leader. I wanted to go to the championships and there was no budget. Not being included in the Games programme, there was no money for women’s sailing. I was the Spanish champion in the European class and I was going to the World Cups because my club, my town hall, supported me… and not the federation”.

Nothing ago, the basketball team also experienced a traumatic situation. One of her components, Marta Xargay, at the age of 30, announced her retirement in August 2021, after the Tokyo Games, and denounced that she suffered bulimia due to the treatment of the then coach Lucas Mondelo. Earlier, in January, Anna Cruz, WNBA champion and 158-time international, said goodbye to the national team, reproaching Mondelo: “At 34 years old, I think it is unnecessary to continue tolerating acts that go against my principles and, before everything I have experienced, turn sour, I’d rather go our separate ways. I also have the power to decide who I work for”.

Victoria Hernández, the first Spanish soccer professional in 1971, recounted in the series of EL PAÍS Pioneers of sport: “No matter what you win, we did not cover travel expenses. We had to pay for it because the support of the institutions was zero. Nothing strange if you follow the criteria of the then president of the Federation José Luis Pérez-Payá: “I’m not against women’s football, but I don’t like it either. I don’t see it as very feminine from an aesthetic point of view. The woman in T-shirt and pants is not favoured, any regional suit would suit her better”. A point of view that led to a repulsive sentence: women’s soccer is neither soccer nor is it feminine.

The recalcitrant machismo in soccer lasted for decades. Ignacio Quereda, who was replaced by Jorge Vilda, served as coach from 1988 to 2015. The complaints from the players for the contempt and lack of knowledge of the coach fell on deaf ears. Maria Teresa Andreu, the woman who had promoted women’s soccer in the federation, resigned from her position in 1998 due to the impossibility of forcing the replacement of Quereda, the one who called the players “chavalitas” and released degrading phrases like “you do it.” What do you need in a male? These are some of the complaints from the report Breaking the Silence of the Informe+ series in 2021 and from the book Don’t call them girls, call them footballers (Libros Cúpula), by the journalist Danae Boronat.

The fight against machismo is as long as the history of sport, and the iron will of pioneers such as Lili Álvarez, the first Spanish Olympian in 1924, Mari Paz Corominas, the first Spaniard in an Olympic final in Mexico 68, or Ana must not be forgotten. María Martínez Sagi, in the 1930s a figure in athletics, literature and journalism, the first manager of a club (Barcelona), and an activist in favor of the claim of women’s rights. In 1934 she tried to create a women’s section at Barça. She did not make it, but neither her struggle, nor that of so many others, was in vain.

You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes on Facebook and Twitteror sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

2023-09-01 03:15:00
#long #tortuous #struggle #athletes #Sports