Spain in chaos ahead of World Cup as Lopetegui is sacked

Spain’s World Cup has been plunged into chaos as manager Julen Lopetegui was sacked the day before the competition is due to start.

Barcelona have a number of players in the Spain squad with Jordi Alba, Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta (he still counts right?) all called up.

Who knows what they must be thinking now after a crazy few days involving Lopetegui.

The Spain coach was announced as the new Real Madrid manager on Tuesday which came completely out of the blue and surprised pretty much everyone.

It also appears to have antagonised Spain chiefs who have sacked Lopetegui and now have to decide pretty quickly who’s going to replace him at the helm.

President of the Spanish football federation Luis Rubiales tried to explain why they had got rid of Lopetegui.

“If anybody wants to talk to one of our employees, they have to speak to us too, that is basic, as this is the team of all Spaniards. The national team is the most important we have, the World Cup is the biggest of all,” he told a press conference.

“The federation cannot be left outside the negotiation of one of its employees, and find out just five minutes before a public announcement.”

It’s a bit of a mad situation which surely could have been avoided. It remains to be seen who will come in and how the crisis will affect the team. They start their campaign on Friday against Portugal.