Spain changes coach
Spanish coach sacked two days before World Cup opening match
Spain's football World Cup hopes were delivered a shattering blow on Wednesday when the chairman of the Spanish football federation (RFEF) announced the immediate dismissal of national squad coach Julen Lopetegui - who had surprised everyone by announcing Real Madrid signing the day before.
SPAIN'S football World Cup hopes were delivered a shattering blow on Wednesday morning when the chairman of the Spanish football federation (RFEF) announced the immediate dismissal of national squad coach Julen Lopetegui.
The drastic decision by chairmam Luis Rubiales came after Real Madrid surprisingly announced Lopetegui would be their new manager for the next three season on Tuesday.
The shock resignation of manager Zinedine Zidane put Madrid on a lightning quest for a new manager just a few days after winning its third consecutive Champions' League title in Kiev.
The announcement made
by the club on Tuesday (see page 59), was only notified to the RFEF five minutes before it took place and caught Luis Rubiales at a FIFA meeting in Moscow, 1,350kilometres away from the national squad World Cup headquarters in Krasnodar
r Rubiales urgently return to Kasnodar in the evening and a press conference was called at 11.30 on Wednesday after a meeting held with Lopetegui, the rest of the technical team and the squad captains (including Real Madrid's Sergio Ramos).
The dismissal of Lopetegui was announced by Sr Rubiales alone and the name of his subsitute was not given until further meetings were carried out during the day and in the early afternoon it was announced that RFEF sports director Ferando Hierro would take over in Russia.
However, no manager will be able to impose his game on the squad, and if, or when, Spain gets knocked-out, the blame game will bound to begin.
While analyst strongly criticised Real Madrid and the coach for announcing he would leave his post to manage the Bernabeu side with only a few days to go before the opening match, the decision taken by Sr Rubiales and the RFEF is seen by many as 'sour grapes'.