Spanish soccer president refuses to resign regardless of kissing a participant on the lips at Girls’s World Cup

Sports activities Information

“I did not prefer it, however what can I do?”

By JOSEPH WILSON, Related Press

August 25, 2023 | 11:14 AM

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Dealing with his attainable removing from workplace, the president of the Spanish soccer federation refused to resign Friday regardless of the uproar he triggered when he kissed a participant on the lips with out her consent after the Girls’s World Cup closing.

Luis Rubiales is beneath immense stress to go away his publish due to his conduct after Spain’s 1-0 victory over England on Sunday. Criticism has steadily mounted, with Spain’s appearing prime minister, gamers’ unions, Spain’s girls gamers, and even voices from inside males’s soccer saying he should go.

However Rubiales was defiant at an emergency basic meeting of the federation.

“I received’t resign,” he declared 4 occasions in fast succession. He claimed he was a sufferer of a witch hunt by “false feminists.”

A number of Spanish information media retailers had reported on Thursday that the 46-year-old Rubiales was planning to step down after grabbing and kissing Jenni Hermoso in the course of the awards ceremony in Sydney, Australia, an motion that marred the title celebrations in entrance of a world viewers.

However on Friday, he did the other, insisting that the kiss was “mutual and with the consent” of Hermoso and portray himself as a sufferer. He was applauded by the overwhelming male meeting. Amongst these supporting his refusal to step down have been girls’s nationwide crew coach Jorge Vilda and males’s nationwide crew coach Luis de la Fuente.

The soccer federation first responded to the scandal by releasing a press release wherein Hermoso downplayed Rubiales’ motion. Later, nevertheless, sports activities web site Relevo.com reported that the federation had coerced her into making the assertion.

The federation denied this to The Related Press. However on Friday, federation vice chairman Rafael del Amo, who had been in command of girls’s soccer, introduced he was stepping down. Others additionally later resigned.

Hermoso had mentioned in a video streamed on social media after the kiss final Sunday that “I didn’t prefer it, however what can I do?” Later, her gamers’ union issued a press release on her behalf saying that it might defend her pursuits and be certain that the act “doesn’t go unpunished.”

In his speech to the meeting on Friday, Rubiales mentioned Hermoso “lifted me up” in a celebratory gesture and he requested her for “a bit kiss?” and she or he “mentioned sure.”

“The kiss was the identical I might give considered one of my daughters,” Rubiales mentioned.

The televised broadcast of the medals ceremony didn’t present the primary moments when Rubiales congratulated Hermoso. But it surely does present that his ft have been on the bottom earlier than he held her face and kissed her.

Rubiales mentioned he would defend his honor in court docket in opposition to politicians, together with two ministers, who known as his kiss an act of sexual violence. One in every of them is appearing Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz, who urged the federal government to take “pressing measures.”

“Impunity for macho actions is over,” Díaz mentioned. “Rubiales can not proceed in workplace.”

Alexia Putellas, Hermoso’s teammate and a two-time Ballon d’Or winner as one of the best participant on the earth, posted a message of help on X, previously often known as Twitter.

“That is unacceptable,” the Barcelona participant wrote. “I’m with you, my teammate, Jenni Hermoso.”

Different teammates shortly adopted.

Aitana Bonmatí, the Spain midfielder named one of the best participant of the Girls’s World Cup, mentioned on X: “There are limits that you simply can not cross and we can not tolerate this. We’re with our teammate.”

The president of Spain’s girls’s league, Beatriz Álvarez, advised Spanish state broadcaster RTVE that she was not shocked as a result of Rubiales’ “ego is above his dignity.”

“What surprises and scandalizes me are his phrases,” Álvarez mentioned. “Each time he speaks he exhibits what sort of particular person he actually is.”

Spain’s Larger Council of Sports activities, the nation’s governing sports activities physique, responded to Rubiales on Friday by saying it was instantly referring the complaints it has obtained from two federation meeting members, Spain’s girls’s league and Díaz’s political celebration to Spain’s Administrative Court docket for Sports activities. Rubiales may very well be deemed unfit to carry workplace if the court docket finds that he violated legal guidelines or laws sanctioning sexist acts.

“The speech by Mr. Rubiales earlier than the final meeting of the Spanish soccer federation is completely incompatible with representing Spanish sports activities and with the values of a sophisticated society like Spain’s,” the council mentioned.

Barcelona, which offered 9 gamers for Spain’s crew, mentioned Rubiales’ conduct “was utterly inappropriate.” Sevilla known as for his resignation. Espanyol additionally joined within the criticism.

FIFA, the governing physique of soccer, opened a disciplinary case in opposition to Rubiales on Thursday. The FIFA disciplinary committee will determine whether or not Rubiales violated its code referring to “the fundamental guidelines of respectable conduct” or behaved “in a method that brings the game of soccer and/or FIFA into disrepute.”

Disciplinary judges can impose sanctions on people starting from warnings and fines to suspensions from the game. FIFA gave no timetable for the ruling.

FIFA’s investigation got here after Spain’s appearing prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, mentioned earlier this week that Rubiales’ try to apologize — after he first insulted his critics — was unconvincing and that “he should proceed taking additional steps.”

The Netherlands-based FIFPRO participant’s union, which had already demanded motion in opposition to Rubiales, reiterated its place after his meeting speech. The union mentioned it welcomed the strikes by FIFA and Spain.

The one related establishment to stay silent has been European soccer physique UEFA, for which Rubiales is a vice chairman. Till Friday’s meeting, he had obtained no public help in Spain, with political events from each the left and the precise talking out in opposition to him. FIFPRO urged UEFA to open its personal disciplinary case.

Rubiales, who led the Spanish gamers’ union for eight years earlier than taking up as federation president in 2018, is at the moment heading the UEFA-backed bid to host the lads’s World Cup in 2030. Spain is bidding with neighboring Portugal and Morocco, and likewise probably Ukraine.

Shortly earlier than the kiss, Rubiales grabbed his crotch in a victory gesture, with Queen Letizia of Spain and 16-year previous Princess Sofía standing close by.

He provided an apology for that, saying it was in a second of “euphoria” and directed towards Vilda on the sector.

The primary members of the elite in Spanish males’s soccer spoke out in opposition to Rubiales on Thursday, when it regarded like he was bowing out. Their phrases of reproach continued to trickle in after Rubiales’ diatribe on Friday.

“What a humiliation,” former Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas mentioned on X. “We should always have spent the final 5 days speaking about our girls gamers, concerning the pleasure they gave us all! About how proud we’re that they gave us a title that we didn’t have in girls’s soccer, as a substitute …”

Actual Betis ahead Borja Iglesias, who has sometimes been known as up for Spain’s nationwide crew, mentioned he wouldn’t play for his nation once more “till issues change.”