Spain manager hopes to tune out noise of RFEF crisis ahead of Euro 2024

MADRID : The way for Spain's men's team to weather the current storm around the soccer federation (RFEF) is to stick together, tune out the noise and concentrate on their performances on the pitch at Euro 2024, manager Luis de la Fuente said on Monday.

As he braces for the challenge of a tough Group B alongside Croatia, European champions Italy and surprise package Albania in Germany, De la Fuente and his players have had to deal with the furore surrounding the scandal-ridden RFEF.

With a corruption probe under way and the fallout from the unsolicited kiss former RFEF chief Luis Rubiales gave player Jenni Hermoso after Spain won the women's World Cup in Sydney last year, the government created a special committee two weeks ago to oversee the governing body until it holds new elections.

"We have to concern ourselves with purely, strictly sporting matters. Which we have enough of," De la Fuente told Reuters in a interview on Monday. "We have to focus on what we can control. This is very, very basic, but it's very real. Stick to football.

"I'm concerned about how the facilities are going to be, the training camp, the pitches, the travel ... And on the pitch, because the players know that we are going to be judged for what we do on the pitch.

"Everything else, all the media noise that exists around us, is not going to help us. So then we have to be totally and absolutely focused on what is, for us, the most important thing: the competition."

Regardless of the buzz around his side, which he knows will be rife, De la Fuente said it will be even more helpful to stick to a philosophy that he has always insisted on - a player's character and values are as important as form and talent.

"What surprises me is that it seems exceptional,