Spain Not Afraid to Speak Up After Women's World Cup Exit

Spain left the Women’s World Cup without a win in Group E. It was their first time participating in the tournament, an achievement in itself for a program that largely coasted through years of mediocrity.

In fact, since 1998, Spain have played under the same coach, Ignacio Quereda. Despite being one of the longest-serving national coaches in the game, he has not managed to produce much loyalty or respect among his players.

The 23 women on the team released a statement on Friday, in part asking Quereda to step down. "We believe an era has come to an end, and we need a change," the statement read, per Reuters. "We have communicated that to the coach and the technical team."

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It's a shame: Spain actually did play some good football in this tournament. They controlled possession in two of their three group games, and all of them were close. They produced 44 shots in total—more than Group A winner Canada—but only 10 actually went on net, according to FIFA's stats.

Their elimination is double-sided: Spain will also miss the 2016 Olympics in Rio as a result of their poor record in Canada. They have never played in the Games.

But the core of this issue is not just coaching; it's not just about a loss in confidence. It's about a country's lack of dedication toward a women's sport.

The Real Federacion Espanola de Futbol (RFEF), Spain's governing body for football, has allowed this kind of complacency to fester in the group. Keeping the same man in the same post after stagnating for 17 years is simply laziness.

In spite of that, Spain are ranked 14th in the world. The squad said they could have played better. But the circumstances really didn't allow them to be their best. They played just four friendlies ahead of the World Cup.

China PR, ranked below Spain at 17th place, played double that number—and against bigger opposition like Sweden, Brazil and Germany. It's a tale of one country allowing the women's program to drift and the other allowing for success.

Of course, China made it to the knockout stage.

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On top of that, Spain only arrived in Canada two days before the tournament started, per Billy Haisley of Deadspin. The United States, in contrast, gave themselves a full six days before their first game.

"Nonexistent warm-up games, a lack of acclimatisation, insufficient analysis of opponents and preparation of matches...and that has been the pattern for a long time," the Spanish team said.

Simply put, Spain's women's program is falling behind. It's not that there isn't interest in the women's game worldwide. Millions are watching, and records are breaking. The BBC predicted one billion viewers for the tournament, up from the record 400 million from the 2011 edition in Germany.

Perhaps at the end of the day it's about profits, and there's simply more money to make in the men's game in Spain. Sports Illustrated's Grant Wahl laments the fact that it had to take the Spanish players themselves bringing awareness to the situation for people to notice just how poorly run they are:

"

Sad thing is Spanish & Mexican FA & media don't care enough about women's soccer to put pressure on NT coaches. Why does it have be players?

— Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl) June 19, 2015"

Quereda himself told reporters back home that he will not resign. He seemed to pin the blame back on the team, saying they weren't eliminated because of poor logistics but because of poor finishing.

"Our elimination was because the ball didn’t go [into the net]," Quereda said (h/t Football Espana).

But the conversation is happening, and the players leave the World Cup with a greater future in mind.