The Spanish women\u2019s soccer team appointed its first ever female head coach after her predecessor was fired on the same day amid ongoing fallout over an unwanted kiss given by soccer chief Luis Rubiales to a player at the Women\u2019s World Cup final. <\/p>\n
Just hours after Jorge Vilda was sacked from his role as the team\u2019s head coach, the country\u2019s soccer federation (RFEF) announced he would be replaced by his deputy, Montse Tom\u00e9. <\/p>\n
Tom\u00e9 will be the first woman in charge of the women\u2019s national team and her debut match will come on September 22 against Sweden. <\/p>\n
The moves comes as part of a major shake-up in Spanish soccer ever since Rubiales, the president of the RFEF, forcibly kissed forward Jennifer Hermoso on August 20. <\/p>\n
Rubiales has apologized for his actions and described the kiss as \u201cmutual\u201d \u2013 a claim Hermoso denied, saying she was not respected. He has been handed a 90-day suspension by FIFA, soccer\u2019s global governing body, while disciplinary proceedings are underway. <\/p>\n
In a statement announcing Vilda\u2019s sacking, RFEF said he was \u201ckey to the notable growth of women\u2019s football and leaves Spain as world champions and second in the FIFA rankings.\u201d <\/p>\n
The federation described the move as \u201cone of the first measures of restructuring announced by (interim) President Pedro Rocha.\u201d <\/p>\n
Vilda had been the women\u2019s national team coach since 2015. \u201cRFEF appreciates his work at the head of the national team and his responsibilities as the maximum sporting figure of the women\u2019s national teams, as well as the successes reaped during his term, crowned with the recent achievement of the World Cup,\u201d the statement added. <\/p>\n
It also praised Vilda\u2019s \u201cimpeccable personal and sporting conduct\u201d and as a \u201ckey part of the notable growth of women\u2019s football in Spain,\u201d describing him as \u201ca promoter of the values of respect and sportsmanship in football.\u201d <\/p>\n
Vilda, who previously coached Spain\u2019s under-17 and under-19 women\u2019s teams, led La Roja<\/em> to a first Women\u2019s World Cup title last month with a 1-0 victory against England in the final. <\/p>\n However, success on the pitch has belied a tense atmosphere in the squad and the long-standing animosity between some of the country\u2019s best players, Vilda\u2019s technical staff and RFEF. <\/p>\n Following the team\u2019s victories against the Netherlands and Sweden in the World Cup quarterfinals and semifinals, videos went viral on social media of what appeared to be cold reactions from some of Spain\u2019s substituted players towards Vilda and his staff, as well as during the post-match celebrations. <\/p>\n One clip showed Vilda trying to celebrate with a handful of players following the win over the Netherlands, only to appear to be ignored. <\/p>\n The players\u2019 dissatisfaction dates back beyond September last year, when 15 members of the senior women\u2019s squad sent personally signed letters to RFEF via email to announce they would no longer play for the national team unless there were wholesale changes made throughout the coaching staff. <\/p>\n The identical letters said that \u201cthe situation\u201d within the Spanish national team \u2013 about which RFEF was \u201caware\u201d \u2013 had been affecting the players\u2019 \u201cemotional state\u201d and health. <\/p>\n \u201cAs a result, I do not currently consider myself to be in a condition to be chosen for the national team and I ask not to be called up until the situation is resolved,\u201d the letter read. <\/p>\n Of the 15 players who signed the letters, only three were in Spain\u2019s World Cup squad: Mariona Caldentey, Aitana Bonmat\u00ed and Ona Batlle. <\/p>\n When Rubiales, speaking at the federation\u2019s Extraordinary General Assembly last month, refused to resign from his position, he also offered his backing to Vilda and said he was starting the process of offering the coach a new four-year deal on about $542,000 (\u20ac500,000) a year. <\/p>\n \u201cOn another level, a lot smaller (than my situation), but they wanted to do to you what they\u2019re doing to me now,\u201d Rubiales said at the time. <\/p>\n \u201cA false narrative to try to transform it into the truth. We\u2019ve suffered a lot, we\u2019ve gone through a lot, we\u2019ve swallowed a lot, but we\u2019ve been together: you and me and your team.\u201d <\/p>\n Vilda, like many in the room, was seen applauding Rubiales throughout the assembly. The following day, however, he issued a statement condemning the actions of the beleaguered soccer chief. <\/p>\n \u201cI am deeply sorry that the victory of Spanish women\u2019s football has been harmed by the inappropriate behavior that our until now top leader, Luis Rubiales, has carried out and that he himself has recognized,\u201d Vilda said in the statement, which was widely shared by Spanish media. <\/p>\n Prior to Spain\u2019s success at the Women\u2019s World Cup, Vilda led the team to the knockout stages of the 2019 tournament and successive quarterfinals at the European championships in 2017 and 2022. <\/p>\n As coach of the country\u2019s youth women\u2019s teams, he twice won the under-17 European championships and also the under-19 European Championships. <\/p>\n\n The Spanish women\u2019s soccer team appointed its first ever female head coach after her predecessor was fired on the same day amid ongoing fallout over an unwanted kiss given by soccer chief Luis Rubiales to a player at the Women\u2019s World Cup final. Just hours after Jorge Vilda was sacked from his role as the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7863,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Player protests<\/h2>\n