The French, German and Zambian national women’s football teams have denied using drones to spy on opposition training sessions.

In an internal email, Canada head coach Bev Priestman, who has been suspended by FIFA for a year after admitting to using drone surveillance at the 2024 Paris Olympics, accused the top 10 teams of deploying the same covert methods.

“…for scouting it can be the difference between winning and losing and all top 10 teams do it,” Priestman wrote in an internal email dated March 20, 2024.

However, after the highest-ranked federations — Spain, France, Germany, USWNT, Japan, Brazil, Australia, Colombia, New Zealand, Nigeria, and Zambia — at the Paris Olympics were contacted by The Athletic, several denied this was the case and rebuked Priestman’s claims.

“We only wish to state that the French Federation is never using any spying methods on the opponents’ teams,” the French Football Federation (FFF) said. “We also add that, if the mail does exist, we strongly reject these baseless accusations.”

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“Team Zambia does not use drones to spy on our opponents,” said a spokesperson for Team Zambia. “Our approach to match preparation…

As is customary after a summer of major tournaments, various international managerial jobs are now vacant.

As is customary, the rumour mill has gone into overdrive.

As is customary, there doesn’t appear to be any common theme across the names linked to major jobs.

Take the England job. According to the bookmakers’ odds, the four most likely names are Eddie Howe, Graham Potter, Lee Carsley and Mauricio Pochettino. Two are homegrown managers who have performed solidly at club level. One is the current England Under-21 manager, who has limited club-coaching experience. The other is a foreign manager — albeit one with considerable experience in English football — who has coached major clubs.

The apparent contenders for the United States men’s national team job are equally varied. There is a raft of MLS candidates — Jim Curtin, Steve Cherundolo, Wilfried Nancy. Then there is David Wagner, a former U.S. international who hasn’t coached in the country. There is Herve Renard, an international specialist currently coaching the France women’s side at the Olympics. There’s also Thierry Henry, who is doing the equivalent with the France men’s side, and…

The last time Spain won a major tournament, technically speaking, was last year. Their women’s side triumphed in Sydney to win the Women’s World Cup playing a brand of football that was very familiar to the men’s side.

Arguably their key player in the knockout stage was Salma Paralluelo, which was unusual considering she wasn’t actually a regular starter. She was a substitute in the quarter-final and scored the winner. She was again a substitute in the semi-final and again scored the winner. She started up front in the final and didn’t score, but she was a surefire pick for the best XI of the tournament, despite the fact she wasn’t a surefire pick for her own team’s starting XI.

This seems strange but also seems increasingly common. Federico Chiesa, who started only four of Italy’s seven games at the last European Championship, was also voted into the team of the tournament despite being most effective as a substitute. Perhaps, in this era where managers can use five subs, we should also pick a ‘best bench’ of the tournament — not simply players who consistently started but weren’t quite good enough to get in the best XI, but players who made the biggest impact from the bench.

That is likely to be the role of Dani Olmo at Euro 2024. With Spain already…

Alexia Putellas took a left-footed shot and after she saw the ball go in, she took off her shirt in an act that came from her soul.

She ran towards the right corner, straight towards her fans. She started screaming, venting all her rage. It was an uncharacteristic act for Putellas, who tends to play with a captain’s composure.

But she needed it. She went to the stands and bowed, evoking memories of the first Clasico that Barcelona women played at Camp Nou in front of 90,000 fans. Lucy Bronze picked up the shirt that Putellas had thrown away and showed it to the crowd.

Aitana Bonmati was the first to embrace Putellas. She had scored Barcelona’s opener in the 63rd minute, advancing past Lyon defender Vanessa Gilles after a great assist from Mariona Caldentey.

It felt fitting; the last two winners of the Ballon d’Or, Putellas and Bonmati, making the difference in the most important match in Barcelona’s history. The relationship between the two has experienced some low moments, so the fact that Bonmati was the first to hug Putellas was significant.

“Alexia and Aitana are FC Barcelona’s heritage,” Xavi Puig, the Barcelona board member in charge of the women’s team,…

Spain’s former men’s national team director Albert Luque and their former marketing director Ruben Rivera have been sacked as part of the fallout from former president Luis Rubiales’ kiss on Jennifer Hermoso.

The ex-Newcastle United striker Luque and Rivera were both suspended from their positions in March until the legal case over the kiss was “clarified” and Spanish FA (RFEF) president Pedro Rocha has now sacked them.

Spanish prosecutors are seeking a two-and-a-half year prison sentence for Rubiales, consisting of one year for the charge of alleged sexual assault and one and a half years for alleged coercion.

The second charge also applied to Luque, Rivera and Jorge Vilda, the World Cup-winning former head coach of the women’s team.

Rubiales has always maintained the kiss on Hermoso was consensual; Hermoso has testified the kiss was not consensual. Spanish media have previously reported that Vilda, Rivera and Luque have denied the charge of coercion in court testimonies.

Two more figures at the RFEF have been sacked after the separate investigation into corruption during Rubiales’ five years in charge from 2018-2023.

They are the RFEF’s former legal director Pedro Gonzalez Seguro and its former human resources director Jose Javier Jimenez, known as…

Alexia Putellas and Barcelona are close to an agreement over a new two-year contract with the option of a further year.

The contract is yet to be signed, but there is a good understanding between both parties over an official agreement being reached, as first reported by Spanish news outlet SPORT.

Negotiations had been on standby as Putellas focused on returning to full fitness following injury but discussions have now resumed and are ongoing.

Despite enticing offers from the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), the 30-year-old’s intention was always to extend her stay at Barcelona, but she wanted to be sure of the direction of the club’s project and how much of a part she would be playing.

She has had the past 18 months disrupted by an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury and then keyhole surgery to her knee, but since returning to playing regularly she has been convinced by the club’s contract proposal.

The two-time Ballon d’Or winner’s existing deal is set to expire in June and The Athletic reported in February negotiations had hit a stumbling block following a dispute over an international call-up.

In December, Barcelona tabled a contract offer to make Putellas the highest paid player in the squad and double her salary, but the club were then angered by her…

Luis Rubiales will stand trial for alleged sexual assault and coercion over his kiss on Jenni Hermoso after the 2023 Women’s World Cup final.

Former Spain head coach Jorge Vilda, now in charge of the Morocco women’s national team, will also stand trial over alleged coercion, along with former sporting director of the men’s national team and ex Newcastle United striker Albert Luque and the Spanish Football Federation’s (RFEF) former head of marketing Ruben Rivera.

The Athletic reported in January the judge investigating Rubiales’ potential charges had recommended the case go to trial, and National Court (Audencia Nacional) judge Francisco de Jorge has now ordered the opening of the trial.

The court has set a bail of €65,000 for Rubiales, 46, to cover “civil liberties” for the sexual assault charge, to be paid within 24 hours.

An additional bail of €65,000 has been set for the charge of coercion to be paid jointly between Vilda, Luque and Rivera.

A statement from the National Court read: “The National Court judge Francisco de Jorge has ordered the opening of the oral trial of the former president of the Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, for the non-consensual kiss of the Spanish national team player Jennifer Hermoso after the World Cup final in Sydney…

Former Spain and Real Madrid head coach Vicente del Bosque has been appointed as the head of a new government-created committee to supervise the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF).

Government spokesperson Pilar Alegria confirmed on Monday that Del Bosque, 73, will lead the Superior Sports Council’s (CSD) new commission of “supervision, normalisation and representation” as part of a bid to reform Spanish football.

The new body has been created in response to the ongoing fallout from scandals following former president Luis Rubiales’ departure, after he was forced to resign over the fallout from his conduct at the Women’s World Cup final. Rubiales faces sexual assault and coercion charges, which he denies, after kissing Jennifer Hermoso following Spain’s 1-0 win over England.

Del Bosque’s committee will work with the RFEF to “initiate a stage of regeneration under a climate of institutional stability” until the governing body holds new elections in autumn. Spain will co-host the 2030 World Cup along with Portugal and Morocco.

Last week, Pedro Rocha was formally announced as the RFEF’s new president, despite being one of several individuals questioned as part of a judicial investigation into alleged corruption during Rubiales’ reign.

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El Clasico is box…

Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmati says the Women’s Super League is an “attractive” competition for Spanish players after criticising the lack of legacy in the domestic game following Spain’s Women’s World Cup.

The 26-year-old Barcelona midfielder highlighted how the WSL empowers its players and singled out Arsenal and Manchester City’s style of play as desirable factors to Spain internationals.

A number of Spanish players have moved to the WSL in recent seasons, with Laia Aleixandri and Leila Ouahabi joining Manchester City, Lucia Garcia and Irene Guerrero signing for Manchester United and Laia Codina moving to Arsenal. Former Barcelona captain Vicky Losada signed for her third WSL club last summer when she joined Brighton following spells at Manchester City and Arsenal.

“You in England are doing things so well,” Bonmati told BBC Sport. “You treat women’s football good. You give power to the players and to the league. Here in Spain, I cannot say the same.

“The league in England is competitive and every year they are putting more money into it to develop it. They are making the league more attractive.”

Bonmati is a product of the Barcelona academy and has spent her entire professional career with the Catalan side. Her Barcelona contract runs until…

The case examining allegations of corruption during Luis Rubiales’ time as Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) president took a further twist on Friday as the man who replaced him was also put under investigation.

Pedro Rocha, who took over after Rubiales decided to resign in September, having already been suspended by FIFA over his behaviour at the Women’s World Cup final the month before, had been called as a witness in the case.

But after his appearance at a Madrid court on Friday he, like Rubiales, has now been placed under investigation.

On March 20, Spanish police carried out a series of raids as part of an anti-corruption investigation codenamed ‘Operacion Brodie’ — after Englishman John Alexander Brodie, an Everton fan who pioneered the use of football nets in the late 19th century and worked for a while in Bilbao in the north of Spain.

Guardia Civil officers — one of Spain’s two national police forces — raided the RFEF headquarters at Las Rozas near Madrid, as well as other locations across the country. Seven arrests were made — five in Madrid and two in the southern city of Granada, where a property owned by Rubiales was also searched.

At the time, Rubiales was in the Dominican Republic, where he said he was on business. On his return to Spain on April…