The president of the Spanish football federation refused to resign despite an uproar for kissing a player on the lips without her consent after the Women's World Cup final. Speaking to an emergency general assembly of the federation Friday, August 23, Luis Rubiales said "I won't resign" four times in quick succession and claimed he was a victim of a witch hunt by "false feminists."
Rubiales grabbed national team player Jenni Hermoso and kissed her on the lips without her consent during the awards ceremony following Spain's 1-0 victory over England on Sunday in Sydney, Australia. Hermoso had said in a video streamed on social media after the kiss last Sunday, "I didn't like it, but what can I do."
Several Spanish media outlets had reported on Thursday that Rubiales was planning to step down. Instead, he said the kiss was "mutual and with the consent" of Hermoso. He received various applause from the overwhelming male assembly.
"A consensual 'peck' is enough to get me out of here? I will fight until the end," he said. He said the pressure he has received this week from politicians and clubs was an attempt "to publicly assassinate me" and said he would defend himself by "taking action" against those people.
<img class="lazy" src="data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 664 443'%3E%3C/svg%3E" data-srcset=" https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/20/0/0/5546/3888/556/0/75/0/bce511b_2023-08-20t133922z-571188515-up1ej8k11xkdz-rtrmadp-3-soccer-worldcup-esp-eng-report.JPG 556w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/20/0/0/5546/3888/600/0/75/0/bce511b_2023-08-20t133922z-571188515-up1ej8k11xkdz-rtrmadp-3-soccer-worldcup-esp-eng-report.JPG 600w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/20/0/0/5546/3888/664/0/75/0/bce511b_2023-08-20t133922z-571188515-up1ej8k11xkdz-rtrmadp-3-soccer-worldcup-esp-eng-report.JPG 664w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/20/0/0/5546/3888/700/0/75/0/bce511b_2023-08-20t133922z-571188515-up1ej8k11xkdz-rtrmadp-3-soccer-worldcup-esp-eng-report.JPG 700w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/20/0/0/5546/3888/800/0/75/0/bce511b_2023-08-20t133922z-571188515-up1ej8k11xkdz-rtrmadp-3-soccer-worldcup-esp-eng-report.JPG 800w" data-sizes="(min-width: 1024px) 556px, 100vw" alt="" i="" didn't="" like="" it,="" but="" what="" can="" do,"="" said="" jenni="" hermoso="" of="" the="" forced="" kiss.="" here="" in="" sydney="" on="" august="" 20,="" 2023."="" width="100%" height="auto">
FIFA, football's global governing body and organizer of the Women's World Cup, opened a disciplinary case against him on Thursday. Its disciplinary committee was tasked with weighing whether Rubiales violated its code relating to "the basic rules of decent conduct" and "behaving in a way that brings the sport of football and/or FIFA into disrepute."
That move by FIFA came after Spain's acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that Rubiales' attempt to apologize, which came after he initially insulted his critics, was unconvincing and that "he must continue taking further steps" to be held accountable.
Spain's Higher Council of Sports, the nation's governing sports body, pledged it would act quickly to consider various formal complaints filed against Rubiales to see if he had broken Spain's sports law or the federation's own code of conduct that sanction sexist acts. If so, Rubiales would face being declared unfit to hold his office by Spain's Administrative Court for Sports.
As if the forced kiss was not enough, Rubiales had shortly before grabbed his crotch in a lewd victory gesture from the section of dignitaries with Spain's Queen Letizia and the 16-year-old Princess Sofia nearby. He did apologize for this: "I want to say sorry for the deeds that happened in a moment of euphoria, I grabbed that part of my body and did so looking at Jorge Vilda [the coach]. I was so emotional, I lost control and I took my hands there."