Barcelona players hit out at plans for Women's Supercopa in Saudi Arabia
Female players in Spain have hit out at plans to take the women's Supercopa to Saudi Arabia. The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has been in negotiations with the Saudis to extend their agreement to play the men's Supercopa semi-finals and final away from Spain until at least 2034 and include the women's competition too.
However, Barcelona players have now criticised the plans. 'Taking the Supercopa outside of Spain and to a country that doesn't respect women? I don't see it,' the midfielder Patri Guijarro said after their semi-final win over Atlético Madrid in this year's edition.
Barcelona went on to win their fifth Supercopa on Sunday, thrashing Real Madrid 5-0 in front of 9,425 fans in Butarque. It was the fourth consecutive year they lifted the trophy but the focus quickly shifted to the future of the tournament with players voicing their concerns about the possibility of playing in a nation where the lack of women's rights has been put in the spotlight.
When the president of the RFEF, Rafael Louzán, was asked about ongoing negotiations he replied: 'A women's Super Copa in Saudi Arabia, why not?' His argument is that the Saudis want to develop women's football in their country.
The Barcelona captain and two-time Ballon d'Or winner, Alexia Putellas, was not impressed as she spoke to media at the Iberdrola Supera awards. 'I'm starting to get the feeling that this is only a woman's fight.
'If we go there, it's obviously for an economic reason,' she added. 'If you don't go, you're affected by not having that income, so it's difficult to grow and you have to put up with 'you don't generate anything'.' The Athletic Bilbao coach, David Aznar, sounded resigned when he said: 'We are slaves to decisions and where they send us.'
When Real Madrid took on Mallorca in the men's Supercopa semi-final in Saudi Arabia at the beginning of January Cristina Palavara, the wife of Mallorca player Dani Rodríguez, called out sexual aggression from locals upon leaving the stadium. 'As soon as the match finished, they started taunting us,' she said on her Instagram. 'There was no type of security. They laughed in our faces, touched our faces and they even grabbed women's bums. It was chaos until we reached the buses.'
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The Barcelona goalkeeper Cata Coll, who is from Mallorca, said after the men's Supercopa: 'I am very aware of what the partners of the Mallorca players suffered. This has to be looked into. As female players it's not just the act of going. It's the trip, the people in the stadiums and of course, women's rights.'
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