The mutiny continues! Spain's World Cup winners refuse to join squad for Nations League fixtures - even after Jorge Vilda was sacked and Luis Rubiales resignation

The players who lifted the World Cup for the first time after beating England in last month's final were among 81 players who vowed to refuse to play again for the national team as long as Luis Rubiales remained president of the federation (RFEF), in the aftermath of his unsolicited kiss on captain Jenni Hermoso.

Rubiales finally resigned from the RFEF last week, days after World Cup winning coach Jorge Vilda was sacked and replaced by Montse Tome, the team's first female manager. However, those changes have not been enough to tempt the players into returning.

The 23 players who triumphed in Australia and New Zealand will refuse to join Tome's first squad for the upcoming UEFA Nations League fixtures against Sweden on September 22 and Switzerland on September 26.

The squad held numerous meetings but have ultimately decided to not make themselves available for the matches. The decision is a huge blow to Tome, who will be left without any usual first-team players for the start of the Nations League, where qualification for next year's Olympic Games in Paris is at stake.

Alexia Putellas posted a joint-statement on behalf of the team on social media on Tuesday. "To date, as we have conveyed to the RFEF, the changes that have taken place are not enough for the players to feel that they are in a safe place, where women are respected, where there is support for women's football and where we can give our maximum performance," it read.

"We would like to end this statement by saying that the players of the Spanish national team are professional players, and what fills us most with pride is to wear the shirt of our national team and always take our country to the highest positions. Therefore, we believe that it is time to fight to show that these situations and practices have no place in our football or in our society, that the current structure needs to change and we do it so that the next generations can have a much more egalitarian football and at the height of what we all deserve."