Spanish soccer president refuses to resign regardless of kissing a participant on the lips at Ladies’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) — Going through his doable removing from workplace, the president of the Spanish soccer federation refused to resign Friday regardless of the uproar he brought about when he kissed a participant on the lips with out her consent after the Ladies’s World Cup ultimate.

Luis Rubiales is below immense strain to go away his put up due to his conduct after Spain’s 1-0 victory over England on Sunday. Criticism has steadily mounted, with Spain’s performing 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 gained’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 shops 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 alternative, 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 workforce coach Jorge Vilda and males’s nationwide workforce coach Luis de la Fuente.

The soccer federation first responded to the scandal by releasing an announcement by which 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 vp Rafael del Amo, who had been answerable for girls’s soccer, introduced he was stepping down. Others additionally later resigned.

Hermoso had stated 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 an announcement on her behalf saying that it will defend her pursuits and be sure that the act “doesn’t go unpunished.”

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

“The kiss was the identical I may give one in every of my daughters,” Rubiales stated.

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

Rubiales stated he would defend his honor in courtroom in opposition to politicians, together with two ministers, who referred to as his kiss an act of sexual violence. One among them is performing Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz, who urged the federal government to take “pressing measures.”

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

Alexia Putellas, Hermoso’s teammate and a two-time Ballon d’Or winner as the most effective participant on this planet, posted a message of assist on X, previously generally known as Twitter.

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

Different teammates rapidly adopted.

Aitana Bonmatí, the Spain midfielder named the most effective participant of the Ladies’s World Cup, stated 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 stunned as a result of Rubiales’ “ego is above his dignity.”

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

Spain’s Increased 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 acquired from two federation meeting members, Spain’s girls’s league and Díaz’s political get together to Spain’s Administrative Court docket for Sports activities. Rubiales might be deemed unfit to carry workplace if the courtroom 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 complicated society like Spain’s,” the council stated.

Barcelona, which supplied 9 gamers for Spain’s workforce, stated Rubiales’ conduct “was utterly inappropriate.” Sevilla referred to 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 regarding “the fundamental guidelines of respectable conduct” or behaved “in a manner 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 performing prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, stated earlier this week that Rubiales’ try and 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 stated 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 vp. Till Friday’s meeting, he had acquired no public assist 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 on 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 presumably 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 appeared 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 stated on X. “We must 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 referred to as up for Spain’s nationwide workforce, stated he wouldn’t play for his nation once more “till issues change.”