UPDATE: New Spanish Women’s National Football Team Coach Named After Jorge Vilda’s Dismissal

UPDATE: Tuesday, September 5 at 6:49 pm

Following the dismissal of Jorge Vilda as coach of the Spanish women’s national team, the RFEF has appointed his deputy, Montse Tomé, as the new first-team coach.

The announcement was made shortly after a statement confirmed the removal of Vilda was confirmed. Tomé becomes the first female to manage the national squad and will take charge later this month when Spain plays against Sweden and Switzerland in the Nations League.

Part of the statement read: ‘The Royal Spanish Football Federation has appointed Montse Tomé as women’s national team coach and she will be the first woman to hold this position in Spain’.

It continued: ‘Tomé (Pola de Siero, 1982) has acted, since 2018, as second coach within Jorge Vilda’s staff and has established herself as a fundamental piece in the growth of the national team. Tomé’s appointment responds to the regeneration measures announced by President Pedro Rocha’.

🚨 𝗢𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟 | La RFEF nombra a @montse_tome nueva seleccionadora nacional femenina.

La asturiana será la primera mujer en ostentar el cargo y se estrenará en septiembre en la #NationsLeague ante Suecia y Suiza.

ℹ️ https://t.co/fAlqVyWwvD #JugarLucharYGanar pic.twitter.com/vG4BtbGjAP

— RFEF (@rfef) September 5, 2023

————————————————————————–

Tuesday, September 5 at 5:20 pm

THE Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) dismissed Jorge Vilda as coach of the women’s national football team this Tuesday, September 5.

He was fired this morning by Pedro Rocha, the acting president of the Federation, who met him in person to inform the manager of his removal.

Vilda will depart safe in the knowledge that he led the women’s Spanish team to its first-ever World Cup victory, despite the controversies that surrounded his tenure.

The RFEF released a statement

A statement released by the RFEF read: ‘The RFEF, through its president, Pedro Rocha, considers it essential to request the most sincere apologies to all of world football, football institutions, football players, especially the players of the Spanish football team and the English football team’.

It offered the same apology to: ‘The other agents involved in football and the fans around the world, for the totally unacceptable behaviour of its highest institutional representative during the final and in the subsequent moments, which do not respond at all to the values ​​of the team of Spanish society, its institutions, its representatives, its athletes, and the leaders of Spanish sport’.

The entity highlighted that Spanish society: ‘Is an example of tolerance and civic-mindedness, in all social and political spheres; and has been an example of sporting behaviour and decorum, as it has shown for decades in all the sporting events in which it has participated’.

The RFEF issued an apology for the actions of Luis Rubiales

It continued: ‘That nobility and international prestige of our society and of our sport have been tarnished in the last few days by the actions of Luis M Rubiales. The damage caused to Spanish football, Spanish sport, Spanish society, and
to the values of football and sport as a whole has been enormous’.

‘The RFEF wants to convey to society as a whole and to world football as a whole its utmost regret for what happened that has tarnished our team, our football and our society’.

‘We feel deeply saddened by the damage caused, and for this reason, the “RFEF must apologise most sincerely and acquire a firm and absolute commitment that events like these can never happen again’, it stressed.

Rocha recalled that all governing bodies in the world of football have ‘immediately’ adopted disciplinary measures against Rubiales. ‘The RFEF is providing all the documentary and administrative support that is required from both disciplinary bodies to be able to have a definitive resolution as soon as possible that makes it possible to compensate for the damage caused’.

The RFEF stressed that Rubiales’ actions did not represent them

‘Winning the World Cup was one of the proudest moments in the history of the RFEF and one of the most important moments in Spanish sport’, he exclaimed.

Rubiales’ performances: ‘are not acceptable under any circumstances. For this reason, the RFEF immediately removed from its website all those inappropriate and meaningless communications that did not value what the team had achieved, and did not take into account the player’s statements about these events’, Rocha explained.

‘The actions of Mr Rubiales do not represent the values ​​defended by the RFEF, nor the values ​​of Spanish society as a whole, and his actions must be attributed solely and exclusively to him, since he is the only one responsible for his actions before society, before the sports bodies and, if applicable, before the courts’, Rocha pointed out.

He concluded: ‘To be clear, this stance was that of Mr Rubiales, not that of the RFEF. We are especially saddened and embarrassed by the additional pain and distress this has caused. We regret that this incident has negatively impacted what should have been a continuous celebration of football’.