FCB Women not happy with Saudi as venue for the Women’s Supercopa as RFEF in dicussions with Saudi Arabia over competition.
FCB Women have hit out at plans to take the women’s Supercopa to Saudi Arabia.
In order to extend its agreement to play the men’s Supercopa semifinals and final away from Spain until at least 2034, the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has been negotiating with the Saudis. The arrangement would also include the women’s competition.
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.
In front of 9,425 spectators in Butarque, Barcelona defeated Real Madrid 5-0 on Sunday to win their fifth Supercopa. Although they had won the trophy for the fourth year in a row, players’ worries about the tournament’s survival and the prospect of competing in a country where women’s rights have been criticised swiftly took the stage.
President of the RFEF, Rafael Louzán, was asked about ongoing negotiations he replied: “A women’s Super Copa in Saudi Arabia, why not?”
Speaking to the media at the Iberdrola Supera awards, Barcelona captain and two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas expressed her displeasure.
“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.”
The wife of Mallorca player Dani Rodríguez, Cristina Palavara, shouted out sexual violence from spectators as she left the stadium during Real Madrid’s match against Mallorca in the men’s Supercopa semi-final in Saudi Arabia at the beginning of January.
“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.”
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.”