Spain coach has 80 players unavailable and no staff 11 days away from next fixture
Spain are World Cup champions, but right now only have a manager in place ahead of their next fixtures.
La Roja will face World Cup semi-final opponents Sweden on Friday the 22nd of September, and then Switzerland on the 26th in the Nations League.
The Spanish Football Federation have sacked Jorge Vilda and appointed his former assistant Montse Tome in his place. However the contracts of the coaching staff and the youth category managers from under-16s up all expired on the 31st of August, leaving Tome without any staff.
In addition, 79 players signed a statement alongside Jenni Hermoso declaring they would not play again until there were significant changes in the Federation, following the Luis Rubiales kiss scandal. Diario AS and Relevo report that the players so far are holding firm in their stance, and want to see more changes than just the resignation of Rubiales and the sacking of Vilda. The Federation believe they have done enough, and the naming of Elvira Andres to the cabinet of the Presidency is seen as a positive step, but the players want to see more.
Tome has no place to turn either, as the Head of the women’s game Rafael del Amo resigned in the wake of Rubiales’ actions, meaning there is nobody, at least on the surface, organising or working on the women’s game currently outside of Tome. The squad for those upcoming matches is due on Friday the 15th, leaving things not only in the air, but highly time-sensitive.
While no doubt the beginning of the process of exposing some of the goings on at the RFEF is welcomed by the Spain squad, the lack of movement in the right direction is no doubt just as frustrating. The cogs of change are often slow to work, but currently the RFEF’s approach seems just as amateurish as
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