Spanish FA launches fertility support programme for female players and referees

MADRID, Sept 8 : Spain's football federation has unveiled an agreement to support fertility treatment for female players and referees, presenting the measure as another way to give women in elite football greater freedom to decide if and when to become mothers.

The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) said on Tuesday its agreement with the Tambre clinic would allow sportswomen to access treatments including in vitro fertilisation and egg freezing, in what the federation called a pioneering step for women's sport in the country.

Spain internationals Olga Carmona and Patri Guijarro attended the announcement and welcomed the deal as an important tool for players managing the demands of professional sport and personal life.

"We are very happy to have reached this agreement, to have one more option to decide how and when to choose to become a mother," Carmona said.

Guijarro said the measure formed part of a broader push to improve work-life balance for female athletes and ensure motherhood does not become a barrier to a career in elite sport.

"Ultimately, it's a very positive agreement because it's true that for all these years we've been fighting to achieve a better work-life balance for mothers," Guijarro said.

"In the case of being able to have a career whilst being a mother, work-life balance measures are now being put in place; we feel we've been listened to. It's important that female athletes feel they don't have to choose between their professional and personal lives."

According to Reyes Bellver Alonso, director of women's football at the RFEF, the federation will cover the full cost of egg-freezing treatment and provide a range of benefits linked to different treatments for all international players who have been called