No Lopetegui problem if Madrid spoke to RFEF - Rubiales
What you need to know:
- The RFEF president replaced coach Lopetegui with Fernando Hierro less than 24 hours later.
- Rubiales was disappointed with the way Lopetegui went about the move, but does not feel "betrayed".
Real Madrid's move for Julen Lopetegui would not have been an issue for Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) president Luis Rubiales if he had been kept in the loop.
Rubiales claims he had just a 20-second discussion with Madrid president Florentino Perez prior to Lopetegui's appointment as Zinedine Zidane's successor at the Santiago Bernabeu being announced on Tuesday.
The RFEF president replaced coach Lopetegui with Fernando Hierro less than 24 hours later – just two days before Spain's World Cup opener against Portugal – and thinks such drama could have been avoided if proper contact had been made.
"I called Florentino and spoke with him for 20 seconds, then I spoke to Lopetegui for a minute. I asked them, as I do not know anything, to be calm and not to announce anything because they had left us on the sidelines," he told Cadena Ser.
"If this had been discussed with us, there would have been no problem. Neither Hierro nor I had knowledge of this.
"I did not know anything at all, I've been sitting next to Julen and the other members of the coaching staff day after day until I left for Moscow."
OFFICIAL | Fernando Hierro to assume role as Spain Head Coach for the 2018 Russia World Cup https://t.co/r2vHeLAKxS pic.twitter.com/2TZjVfFypQ
— Selección Española de Fútbol (@SeFutbol) June 13, 2018
Rubiales was disappointed with the way Lopetegui went about the move, but does not feel "betrayed".
"I'll have to get the messages because I have messages with him. I have messages and I'm very angry about how things have been done," he added.
"I feel Julen Lopetegui is wrong but I do not feel betrayed by him. There are things that are intolerable."
