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Jorge Vilda after World Cup triumph

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Alessandra Tarantino / dpa

The former coach of the Spanish Women's World Cup, Jorge Vilda, will become the new coach of Morocco's women's national team after his dismissal in the wake of the kissing scandal. This was announced by the Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) on its website on Thursday.

The contract will initially run until 2027, wrote the Spanish newspaper »Mundo Deportivo«. The 42-year-old's most important task is to qualify the North African country's team for the 2027 World Cup. Morocco's women's team recently took part in a World Cup for the first time in Australia, surprisingly making it to the round of <> and leaving the German team behind in the preliminary round.

Despite the World Cup triumph, Vilda had been sacked by the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) on 5 September, although his contract ran until 2024. He was succeeded by his former assistant, former national team player Montserrat Tomé. An official reason for the dismissal was not given at the time.

But Vilda had already had problems in September last year, when 15 players announced their retirement from the Selección in protest against his way of working. The reasons were not explicitly stated, apparently the players accused Vilda of control mania and harsh training methods, among other things.

Vilda applauded Rubiales

At that time, the association still stood by him. Vilda, like other football officials, caused great outrage when they applauded the federation boss Luis Rubiales, who has since been suspended and resigned by the world governing body Fifa in the wake of the kissing scandal, at an RFEF meeting at the end of August after his defense speech. Among many others, ministers of the left-wing government in Madrid then called for his dismissal.

Rubiales had kissed player Jennifer Hermoso on the mouth at the award ceremony after Spain's World Cup final in Sydney on August 20. He said the kiss was mutually agreed. However, Hermoso had said after the incident that she had "felt like the victim of an impulsive, sexist and inappropriate act that I did not agree to."

An investigation is underway against Vilda and others. According to Spanish media reports, the investigating judge in charge of the case saw circumstantial evidence that Vilda and others had tried to persuade Hermoso on the flight back to Spain against the backdrop of the emerging global outrage to exonerate Rubiales and announce that she had consented to the kiss.

kjo/dpa