At the final whistle of the 2023 Women’s World Cup, Spain’s players ran into a joyous pile on the field, screaming and hugging each other. The staff, meanwhile, jumped up and down in a distinctly separate group half a field away. Head coach Jorge Vilda celebrated amongst the team for a few seconds, an unsubtle space clearing around him, then he quietly slipped away. The players continued cheering. It was a succinct reminder that sometimes it can be quite complicated to be a sports fan.
On the television show “The Good Place,” the character of Michael talks about the impossibility of moral purity for people who have to exist in the real world. “Every day, the world gets a little more complicated,” he says, “And being a good person gets a little harder.”
That’s been part of the dilemma for fans who want to cheer on Spain’s players but cannot stop placing this win in the context of other players protesting against RFEF and the accusations that Vilda and his coaching staff had created an unprofessional and overly controlling training environment. “I don’t want this to justify keeping on a coach who mistreats players” has been a common refrain among fans here at the tournament and on social media in the buildup to this final.
Before kickoff, fans at…
