Spain Fires Coach Amid Fallout of World Cup Controversy

He’d led the national team since 2015.

Over two weeks after Spain's 1–0 win over England in the Women’s World Cup final, the volatile aftermath of the tournament continues to engulf the winning nation.

The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) fired coach Jorge Vilda on Tuesday, parting ways with its manager of nine years as part of a national reckoning over the behavior of federation president Luis Rubiales after the final.

Vilda, 42, led Spain to its first Women’s World Cup title—but only after coming under fire in September 2022 after 15 players signed a letter pledging not to play for the national team while he remained in charge. Later, following Rubiales’s forcible kiss of midfielder Jenni Hermoso, Vilda remained noticeably silent.

“The RFEF wants to convey to the whole of society and to the whole of world football its deepest regret for what has happened, which has tarnished our national team, our football and our society,” an RFEF statement shortly before Vilda’s firing read. “The damage caused to Spanish football, to Spanish sport, to Spanish society and to the values of football and sport as a whole has been enormous.”

Rubiales, who became the RFEF's president in 2018, was suspended by FIFA for 90 days on Aug. 26.