For now, there is an implicit, vaguely uneasy truce in support of the greater good. Jenni Hermoso, Spain’s centre forward, insists that “you don’t have to have the best group of friends” to succeed.
Midfielder Teresa Abelleira promotes the positive spin, that internal conflict has united a football team. It changes nothing: if Spain win Sunday’s World Cup final, it will be one of the most remarkable major tournament victories in history.
It was in the aftermath of Euro 2022, a tournament for which Spain were highly fancied and yet lost to hosts and eventual champions England in the quarter-finals, that the first shots were fired.
One of Spain’s team captains, Irene Paredes, called for systemic change within the Spanish Football Federation’s (RFEF) treatment of its women’s team. Reports that a group of players were demanding coach Jorge Vilda be sacked were later rejected by players, but they certainly did have deep concerns about training methods, training sessions and treatment of players by coaching staff.
Fifteen players, of which Paredes was not one (although she offered her support) but that included some of the most talented of their generation, sent 15 separate, identically-worded emails in which they accused the RFEF and the coaching staff of behaviour and actions that affected their emotional and physical wellbeing. It was, by any measure, an extraordinary display of their displeasure.
If that raised eyebrows, the RFEF’s response saw them and raised the stakes. They accused those players of acting “outside the values of football and sport” and stressed that they would not select players for the national team who were not entirely committed to the role (and therefore coaches and manager), even if they had to select youth players.
“Las 15”, as those players were nicknamed, were effectively out in the cold.
Managers are not supposed to survive mutinies nor being disliked by their players. When France’s players boycotted training at the 2010 World Cup in protest at Nicolas Anelka being sent home, head coach Raymond Domenech was sacked for gross misconduct after the tournament. When Brian Clough rubbed Leeds United’s players up the wrong way, he was gone after 44 days.
But a first plot twist: Spain carried on winning – 11 of 13 games between the Euros and the World Cup including beating defending world champions USA, a 7-0 thrashing of Argentina and a 1-0 win over Japan in November 2022.
Vilda, ignoring the high-profile absentees, called up a fresh crop of players and watched them thrive. Abelleira grew into her midfield role. Salma Paralluelo made her debut and scored a hat-trick. A crop of early 20-somethings were the direct beneficiaries.
And then a second: part re-integration. In June, when Vilda announced his provisional squad for the World Cup, three of “Las 15” were back in: Aitana Bonmati, Mariona Caldentey and Ona Batlle. It was not lost on anyone that these were arguably the most important three to Spain’s chances of success. Vilda went to Barcelona to speak to the rebel group – three agreed; the rest didn’t.
There have been some positive changes, according to some close to the camp. The RFEF have paid for family members of the squad to come to Australia. There are more support staff – a podologist, a second chef and an extra physio – to bring them in line with the men’s team. Spain are staying in the Intercontinental in Sydney, one of the best hotels in Australia.
But it’s still notable that the only person during this tournament to speak out directly in favour of coach Vilda is Luis Rubiales, president of the RFEF. Talking to Spanish television network TVE after the victory over Sweden, Rubiales made his own position clear (before going on to commend himself for the rise of the Spanish national women’s team).
“What we have endured is a lot,” he said. “The questions have been asked of Jorge Vilda, who is a hard-working man, a world-class coach, who has turned down other federations that have offered more money and stayed with Spain. He has continued working with his people and not paid attention to those who wanted to destroy him.”
It is a fascinating dynamic. Spain’s players have batted away specific questions about the feud, but they have preferred to celebrate without their coach after knockout tie victories.
Vilda is gaining credit in the media for masterminding the route to the final, but many supporters believe this team is achieving in spite, not because of him.
Of one thing, we can be sure: if Spain can win the World Cup without 12 elite footballers and with the smoke of civil war hanging in the air, the rest of the game should be mighty worried for what they might do when peacetime finally breaks out.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/RKaD3OB
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