Sarina Wiegman dedicates coaching award to Spanish women’s team

England manager Sarina Wiegman dedicated her award for Europe’s best coach to the Spanish women’s team in the wake of the furore surrounding the unsolicited kiss by Spanish FA president Luis Rubiales.

Wiegman, who was presented with the UEFA coach of the year award on Wednesday, said the ongoing “issues around the Spanish team” had affected her deeply “as a coach, as a mother of two daughters, as a wife and as a human being.”

In her acceptance speech Wiegman, whose England side lost the final to Spain, said “women’s football and society still have a long way to go”.

Wiegan was referring to the “el polémico beso”, the moment when Rubiales kissed player Jenni Hermoso on the mouth during the presentation of the World Cup trophy.

Rubiales, who had faced calls to step down, announced his intention to stay and accused Hermoso of lying, saying she had agreed to the “peck” which she denied.

Reactions to the incident ballooned in the following days, as politicians and women’s groups waded in, and have not abated since.

Rubiales has since been suspended by FIFA, while on Friday the Tribunal Administrativa Deportiva (TAD) is expected to decide if Rubiales will be ousted or not.

Meanwhile Rubiales’ mother was hospitalised after a two-day hunger strike in a church in her home town of Motril because of what she called the “inhuman persecution” of her son.