Ignacio Quereda Laviña (born 24 July 1950) is a Spanish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach who managed the Spain women's national football team between 1988 and 2015.

Playing career

Born in Madrid, Quereda was raised in Badajoz where his family moved when he was two weeks old. He was a right–winger in

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

's youth teams and represented victorious Spain teams in the

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

and

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

editions of the

World University Games The Universiade is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name is a portmanteau of the words "University" and "Olympiad". The Universiade is referred t ...

. After obtaining his coaching certificate, he was Spain's assistant coach at the 1979 World University Games and spent a period in charge of Tercera División club

CD Móstoles Club Deportivo Móstoles was a Spanish football team from Móstoles, a city in the southern metropolitan area of Madrid. Founded in 1955 and dissolved in 2012 it played its last season in Tercera División, holding home matches at ''Estadio El ...

Coaching career

The

Royal Spanish Football Federation The Royal Spanish Football Federation ( es, Real Federación Española de Fútbol; RFEF) is the governing body of football in Spain. It is based in La Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas, a municipality near Madrid. It was founded on 14 October 1909 ...

(RFEF) appointed Quereda as women's national team coach in 1988, a position he has held until 2015, which makes him one of the longest serving football coaches of all time. This has led to criticisms to the RFEF of indifference for the women's national team. Under his management the Spanish team has qualified for the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

and

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

. In 2014, the team qualified for their first World Cup after defeating Romania 2–0 in qualifiers. He also led the national Under-19 squad to a win in the

2004 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship The UEFA Women's U-19 Championship 2004 Final Tournament was held in Finland between 28 July – 8 August 2004. Players born after 1 January 1985 were eligible to participate in this competition. Spain won the cup after defeating Germany 2–1 in ...

. In May 2011

Laura del Río Laura del Río García (born 5 February 1982) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a forward. She last managed men's club Flat Earth FC. She used to play for Bristol Academy in England's FA WSL. Prior to that, she ...

, a striker with 40 goals in 39 caps for Spain, said that she would never play for the national team again while Quereda was still in charge. According to del Río, many other players had also refused to play for Quereda. As an RFEF official, in 2009, he launched a controversial reform of the Superliga Femenina, expanding it from 16 to 24 teams in a two-stage three-group format, despite the opposition of most teams and players in the championship. The reform was cancelled two years later. In

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

, Quereda guided Spain to their first ever

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association ( FIFA), the sport's international governing bo ...

. After Spain's poor performance and early elimination from the tournament in Canada, the entire 23-player squad publicly called for him to be sacked. His resignation was confirmed after 139 matches (38.13% win) on 30 July 2015.

References

Living people Spanish football managers 1950 births Spain women's national football team managers 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup managers Footballers from Madrid Association football players not categorized by nationality Sportspeople from Badajoz Footballers from Extremadura Real Madrid CF players Association football wingers {{Spain-footy-bio-stub