Luis Rubiales, President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), met this Wednesday with the coaches of the lower categories for, after the suspension of the European Under-19 Championship, start preparing for the Under-21 category and next summer's key event: the Tokyo Olympics.
The Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas was attended by, in addition to Rubiales, the sports director of the RFEF, Jose Francisco Molina, the coordinator of the National Teams, Francis Hernandez, and with the different selectors of the lower: Luis de la Fuente (Under-21 and Olympic); Santi Denia (sub-19); Pablo Amo (sub-18), Julen Guerrero (under-17) and David gordo (U-15 and U-16).
A meeting to start planning for a 2021 that, after the postponement of competitions due to the coronavirus, It is hectic despite the suspension of the Elite Round and the subsequent European Under-19 which was released this Tuesday due to “the current unresolved epidemiological situation in Europe and the consequent difficulties in travel.”
The tournament was a qualifier for the FIFA U-20 World Cup, scheduled to be held in May 2021, so the body decided that the five places reserved for European teams in the competition were assigned for teams occupying the top five places in the UEFA coefficient rankings for the 2019-20 season.
For this reason, Spain is out of the World Cup since the teams from the old continent that will participate will be England, France, Italy, Holland and Portugal. Decision that leaves the Santi Denia team unable to meet one of the objectives, but that also reduces complications in the next year.
First with the European Under-21 for which Spain achieved qualification on October 13, with two days still to be played, and in which he will defend the title in search of his sixth in the category. The tournament is scheduled to take place in two phases, March and May, in Hungary and Slovenia.
The selector Luis de la Fuente will have extra work since the Tokyo Olympics are scheduled from July 23 to August 8, postponed a year due to the coronavirus, in which both he and the RFEF have high hopes and trust to play a good role.
For this reason, all the members of the lower categories got down to work this Wednesday to rescue the work done previously, thinking about their dispute normally until the pandemic prevented it, and start planning with the new dates on the table.