Coach of Spain’s Women’s Soccer Team Is Fired
The coach of the Spanish nationwide soccer group that received the Women’s World Cup trophy final month was ousted on Tuesday by the nation’s soccer federation, after months of complaints from gamers who accused him of outdated strategies and controlling conduct.
The firing of the coach, Jorge Vilda, comes because the destiny of one in all his most ardent supporters, Luis Rubiales, hangs within the stability. Mr. Rubiales, Spain’s soccer federation chief, forcibly kissed a member of the nationwide group at a medals ceremony in Australia, setting off a nationwide controversy in Spain and highlighting sexism within the sport.
The federation stated in a press release that, as one of many “first measures of renewal” introduced by the interim president, Pedro Rocha, it had determined “to do without the services” of Mr. Vilda as sporting director and nationwide girls’s coach, a task he accepted in 2015.
The federation named Montse Tomé, 41, as the ladies’s coach, and he or she would be the first lady to carry that place in Spain. Ms. Tomé has labored since 2018 on Mr. Vilda’s teaching employees, the federation stated in a news launch. She will make her debut in September.
In its assertion about Mr. Vilda, the federation didn’t give a selected cause for firing him and thanked him for his work with the nationwide group and the success throughout his tenure, topped by the World Cup victory. It stated it was highlighting “his impeccable personal and sporting behavior,” which it referred to as “a key piece in the notable growth of Spanish women’s football.”
The federation has referred to as on Mr. Rubiales to resign, and Spanish prosecutors have opened an investigation into whether or not he may very well be charged with committing an act of sexual aggression. Players have stated they won’t take the sphere for the nationwide group except modifications are made on a managerial degree. And FIFA, soccer’s governing physique, has suspended Mr. Rubiales for 90 days.
Mr. Vilda, who was employed in 2015 after one in all his predecessors was ousted amid accusations of sexism, had lengthy been the topic of complaints from gamers relating to unequal pay and what they referred to as his controlling conduct, in addition to a common tradition of sexism. Last yr, 15 star Spanish gamers staged a protest, refusing to play on the nationwide group except Mr. Vilda was fired.
That rebel drew a stern rebuke from the Spanish soccer federation, which backed Mr. Vilda. Not solely wouldn’t it not hearth him, the federation stated, however the gamers should apologize for his or her actions earlier than they might be allowed again on the group. The standoff ended with many of the mutinous gamers returning to the sphere. Only three of these gamers had been within the World Cup.
Mr. Rubiales backed Mr. Vilda on the time. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País in October 2022, Mr. Rubiales related the success of the ladies’s group to Mr. Vilda’s teaching abilities and dismissed the accusations of ailing therapy. In a speech final month, he doubled down in his help for the coach, vowing to extend his wage to 500,000 euros ($543,000) after the World Cup win, Spain’s first within the girls’s match.
Mr. Rubiales has been on the middle of a maelstrom over sexism in Spanish girls’s soccer since he grabbed and kissed Jennifer Hermoso, a member of the nationwide group, in the course of the medals ceremony after Spain beat England, 1-0, within the remaining in Sydney, Australia.
After the pressured kiss, gamers once more issued an ultimatum. The complete girls’s group and dozens of different gamers signed a press release saying they might not play for Spain “if the current managers continue.” Alexia Putellas, who’s widely known as among the finest gamers on the earth, coined the hashtag #seacabo, or “it’s over.” Some folks protested within the streets of Spain. On Monday night, the Spanish males’s group captain, Álvaro Morata, flanked by his teammates, issued a joint assertion rejecting “the unacceptable behavior of Mr. Rubiales.”
Some commentators have described the episode as a watershed second in Spain’s #MeToo motion, highlighting a divide between the nation’s traditions of machismo and more moderen progressivism that has put Spain within the European vanguard on problems with feminism and equality.
Mr. Rubiales has denied doing something unsuitable, arguing that he has been a sufferer of “social assassination” and even suggesting that Ms. Hermoso initiated the encounter, which she has strenuously denied. His mom went on a three-day starvation strike in a church in his hometown, Motril, in southern Spain, demanding that Ms. Hermoso “tell the truth.”
Ms. Hermoso, for her half, has stated that “at no time did I consent to the kiss that he gave me.”
As the scandal mushroomed, the federation, referred to as the Royal Spanish Football Federation, referred to as an emergency assembly. Mr. Vilda was one of many many males within the room who gave Mr. Rubiales a standing ovation.
Later, nevertheless, Mr. Vilda tried to distance himself from Mr. Rubiales, saying that he regretted his boss’s “inappropriate conduct.” The Spanish males’s coach, Luis de la Fuente, additionally apologized for applauding. But the injury was accomplished.
The firing of Mr. Vilda got here on the identical day that the Spanish authorities revealed the awarding of a Gold Medal for Sporting Merit of the Royal Order to your complete girls’s group, together with Mr. Vilda.
But with a match towards Sweden set for Sept. 22, and with none of Spain’s star gamers apparently keen to compete, the soccer federation reduce Mr. Vilda unfastened.
