Spain have responsibility to repair country’s image, says manager Luis de la Fuente

Spain manager Luis de la Fuente says his team have a responsibility to repair Spanish football’s image amid the ongoing corruption investigation into the country’s football federation.

“Nobody expects this. It is not nice,” De la Fuente said.

“It is a feeling of sadness regarding the image we’re offering.”

The Spain boss, who replaced Luis Enrique as manager in December 2022, added: “It must not have any impact in our work but we do not live out of touch with reality.”

The RFEF said the case had caused “very serious damage” to the sport’s image in the country.

An apartment belonging to former RFEF president Luis Rubiales was also raided as part of the investigation into alleged corruption.

Rubiales was banned from football-related activities for three years by Fifa in October after he kissed forward Jenni Hermoso on the lips – which she said was not consensual – following Spain’s Women’s World Cup final.

Spain face Colombia on Friday and Brazil on Tuesday in friendly matches.

Spain’s Manchester City midfielder Rodri said: “We’ve been for quite a long time dealing with plenty of things not related to sport so we became sort of experts dealing with these situations and in focusing on what matters to us the football players.

“Everything related to police investigations and arrests is not nice. But we’ll have to let justice work.”