Spain fires coach
Coach took job with Real Madrid and didn’t tell his federation
MOSCOW — Spain, one of the favourites to win the World Cup, found itself in disarray just two days before its first game of the competition after the country’s soccer federation fired coach
Julen Lopetegui on Wednesday, despite fervent protests from his players. Luis Rubiales, president of the Spanish soccer federation, the RFEF, said at a news conference that he had no choice but to remove Lopetegui, 51, after it emerged a day earlier that he would replace Zinedine Zidane as coach of Real Madrid after the World Cup. Fernando Hierro, the national team’s technical director, will replace Lopetegui for the duration of the tournament.
The Spanish federation agreed a few weeks ago to extend Lopetegui’s contract until 2020, but Rubiales said that he was forced to renege because the coach had negotiated his move — not unusual in itself — without informing his employer.
“The negotiation occurred without the federation having any information,” Rubiales said from the team’s training facility in Krasnodar, in southern Russia, suggesting he had been informed of the news just five minutes before the news was made public. “We have a way of behaving that needs to be adhered to.”
The move caught Rubiales by surprise and he immediately flew from Moscow — where he was expected to cast Spain’s vote to determine who would host the 2026 World Cup — to Krasnodar to meet with Lopetegui and Hierro. In his absence, Spain did not cast a vote.
MEXICO LOSES DEYES
Mexico’s football federation says that midfielder Diego Reyes has been ruled out of the World Cup with a right thigh injury.
He picked up the injury playing for Porto and missed three friendlies in the build-up to the tournament in Russia.
BIG MONEY
FIFA’s head of finance says he “anticipates strong revenues” leading to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Thomas Peyer tells member federations that income from broadcasting rights will add up to 53% of FIFA’s budgeted income of $6.56 billion over the next four years. Around 70%is already contracted.
The extra income lets FIFA promise $1.5-million annual grants to each of its 211 member federations. That’s a 20% increase.