The Sports Law will be amended in such a way that the presence of any player in the national team is no longer considered a duty and is exclusively a right, while establishing the free choice of each athlete to decide whether to participate in the call or withdraws.
At the last minute, the PSOE agreed to consider the Republican Left (ERC) bill in Congress ending the obligation to attend calls for the Spanish team football and other sports, something that the Minister of Education and Sports, Pilar Alegría, publicly ruled out last week, and that the Socialists also rejected during Tuesday’s debate.
The ERC proposal, which was considered by the plenary of Congress with the support of Sumar and the rest of the nationalist and independence groups, consists of an amendment to the Sports Law so that the presence of any player in the squad is not excluded. no longer considered a duty and be solely a rightwhile recording the free choice of each athlete to decide whether to participate in the call or withdraw.
This would put an end to the possibility of the federation in question threatening athletes with fines of 30,000 euros and even revoking their federation license if they do not respond to the Spanish team’s call.
In the debate held on Tuesday afternoon in the plenary session of Congress, the Socialist speaker Sonia Guerra maintained her rejection of the Esquerra reform, emphasizing that this obligation is not intended to “impose” on the country, but rather to protect the athlete from the consequences of the reforms. clubs, whose interests are different and what they are looking for is to get the maximum return from their players.
As he recalled, no athlete has been penalized for not answering the call of the national team, and those who did not want to speak to the coach earlier and were not called, so in practice there is no imposition on the independentists.
But two hours later, when the vote arrived, the PSOE took a ‘pivot’ and supported the consideration of the ERC initiative, which will be able to continue its way in Congress despite the ‘no’ of PP and Vox.
This reform was registered in September following complaints from a large part of the national team players, who admitted that “out of obligation” they had responded to coach Montse Tomé’s call after the ‘Rubiales case’, as opting out sanctions could have resulted.
Source: EITB
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
