Reasons for Billda stepping down as head coach of the Spanish women's football team

On September 5th, the Spanish Football Association announced that Billda, who led the team to win the World Cup championship last month, will no longer serve as the head coach of the Spanish women's national football team. Former assistant coach of the women's national football team, Monteceau Tolme, will take over Billda's position. At the Women's World Cup not long ago, 42 year old Billda led the Spanish women's football team back to glory, but was dismissed less than a month later (with a contract until 2024). Recently, the President of the Spanish Football Association, Rubiales, who has been at the center of controversy, refused to resign at a press conference held on August 25th and angrily denounced Spain's "false feminism". Both the men's national team coach Delafuente and the women's national team coach Bida in the audience gave applause. Ruviales also stated that the program will be initiated to renew Bilda's contract for 4 years and increase his salary. After Ruviales made a tough statement, a total of 80 female football players playing in the top Spanish league, including 23 players who had just won the World Cup, issued a collective statement stating that they would refuse to join the national team as long as Ruviales remained in office. Subsequently, Ruviales was suspended by FIFA for 90 days, and the interim leadership team of the Spanish Football Association decided to dismiss Ruviales' direct line, Birda.

However, Spanish men's football coach Delafuente, who also applauded for Ruviales, apologized for the applause afterwards. He said he regretted it and would never applaud again. He explained that he thought Ruviales was going to announce his resignation, and Ruviales' behavior had tarnished the image of Spanish football. Although he won the World Cup this summer, Billda has been controversial since taking office in 2015. At the championship celebration, the players did not congratulate the coach, and almost no players actively interacted with him, indicating that he did not receive recognition from the players. Shortly after the end of last year's European Championship, due to extreme dissatisfaction with Billda's management style, 15 Spanish women's football team players jointly "pressured" the Football Association to dismiss Billda, otherwise they would permanently withdraw from the national team. These 15 national team players stated in a joint letter that the management style of the academy has had a serious impact on their emotions and physical and mental health.

Later, the media revealed that Billda had set up multiple rigid regulations, such as night inspections of dormitories and prohibiting team members from traveling together. Some national team players have revealed to the media that Billda has a strong desire for control, and as the head coach, his technical and tactical skills do not have many strengths. Sometimes the players even set their own tactics without the coach. Before this summer's World Cup, the Spanish women's football team under the rule of Birda had an awkward victory in the knockout stage of the World Series. In the quarter finals of the 2017 Dutch European Championship, they lost to Austria on penalties. In the round of 16 of the 2019 French World Cup, they fell at the feet of the United States team. Last year's European Championship had high hopes for the Spanish women's football team, which had the Barcelona dynasty's team. However, they still failed to break the curse of being invincible in the knockout stage. It was at this moment that the long-standing grievances between Birda and the women's football team erupted, and 15 players forced the Chinese Football Association to find a solution to hire Birda. After this incident, Ruviales did not comply with public opinion to dismiss Billda, and only 3 of the 15 forcing players ultimately participated in the World Cup.

The final defeat of the group stage against Japan cast a shadow over the elimination journey of the Spanish team. At this time, Billda took the initiative to take responsibility and made several key adjustments to the starting lineup in the knockout match against Switzerland. The Spanish team achieved a historic victory with a score of 5-1, breaking the curse of being unbeaten in the knockout stage. The Spanish women's football team, who broke their demons, eliminated strong opponents all the way to the Dream World Cup. As the commander, Birda played an indispensable role. His use of Paral Luero can be regarded as a textbook. In the matches against the Netherlands and Sweden, Barcelona's young player came off the bench to change the situation. In the final against England, she was also placed in the starting lineup, giving the team a starting advantage. The Spanish women's football team was able to win the World Cup in a historic way, and Billda's deployment and on-site adjustments played a key role. Even though the chaos before the World Cup was caused by his tyranny and arbitrariness, it cannot be denied that he played a role in the journey to win the World Cup. Just before being fired by the Spanish Football Association, Billda had just been nominated as the UEFA Women's Football Coach of the Year, but lost narrowly to English women's football coach Wigman in the final vote. In the statement announcing the dismissal of Billda, the Spanish Football Association still thanked him and stated that Billda played a crucial role in the development of the country's women's football team. Leading the Spanish women's football team to a historic World Cup championship, Billda was a hero, but the chaos within the national team was also related to him. This controversial "champion coach" ultimately became the first victim of the recent earthquake in the Spanish Football Association.