Spain players offered egg freezing and fertility treatment in RFEF agreement

The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has agreed a fertility programme allowing female footballers to freeze their eggs and access fertility treatment.

The agreement with Madrid-based Tambre clinic will run until 2029 and is intended to strengthen maternity support and improve the work-life balance available to people working in Spanish football.

It applies to all RFEF national-team players, including those in the futsal teams. Referees, assistants working in the Primera Division and other federation employees are also covered by the deal.

The initiative follows requests from players during discussions involving the national team's captains, including London City Lionesses midfielder Alexia Putellas.

Putellas, a two-time Ballon d'Or winner, has previously spoken about the difficulties female footballers can face when attempting to combine a career at the highest level with their plans to become mothers.

She endorsed the agreement as a significant development for Spain's players. Putellas has highlighted how elite sport can place particular pressure on athletes who want to have children, because of the demands of professional competition and the limited length of a playing career.

She said: “the physical demands and limited career window of elite sport can clash with the biological timeline for having children.”

The RFEF said the programme forms part of a broader effort to improve maternity protection across Spanish football. By making fertility treatment and egg freezing available through the agreement, the federation is responding to concerns raised by its players about the timing of motherhood during their careers.

The deal also extends beyond the senior women's national team, with futsal players and a range of other officials and federation staff included in its terms.