Celebrations have turned sour in Spain, as Spanish football president Luis Rubiales is refusing to quit after his unsolicited kiss on star forward Jenni Hermoso.
The football boss grabbed Jenni Hermoso’s head and kissed her on the lips after Spain’s Women’s World Cup victory in Sydney, prompting strong calls for the president to resign.
Spain’s entire women’s team have refused to play internationals, after Mr Rubiales refused to quit at a federation meeting on Friday.
Mr Rubiales was defensive as he complained, saying “false feminists” were “trying to kill me”.
“For my resignation to be called, Is it so serious that I need to leave having done the best management in the history of Spanish football? Do you think I have to resign? Well I’m going to tell you something: I will not resign. I will not resign. I will not resign. I will not resign. I will not resign!”
Star player Jenni Hermoso has strongly denied that the kiss was consensual, adding that she was pressured by the federation to make a joint statement to alleviate the scrutiny targeting Mr Rubiales.
Ms Hermoso posted a statement on social media platform X, formally known as Twitter, saying she expresses zero tolerance for such behaviour.
“I clarify that at no time did the conversation to which Mr. Luis Rubiales referred to take place and that, far from it, his kiss was consensual. Likewise, I would like to reiterate, as I did at the time, that this fact was not to my liking. The situation caused me a shock because of the context of the celebration, and with the passage of time and after delving a little deeper into those first feelings, I feel the need to denounce this fact because I believe that no person, in any work, sports or social environment should be a victim of this type of non-consensual behavior.”
Ms Hermoso has the support of her team behind her, with her entire cup-winning team and 33 other players, signing a joint statement sent via their union, FUTPRO, demanding the removal of the federation leadership.
The union made a statement on social media on behalf of the players, stating that all who have signed the letter will not return to the team if the current leadership continues.
“From our union, we want to emphasise that no woman should feel the need to respond to the forceful images that the whole world has seen and of course, they should not be involved in non-consensual attitudes. We want to end this statement by asking for real structural changes that help the absolute team to continue growing, in order to be able to transfer this great success to later generations. It fills us with sadness that such an unacceptable event is managing to tarnish the greatest sporting success of Spanish women’s soccer.”
This support has also come from the Spanish public, many of whom were seen protesting outside Spain’s football federation headquarters.
One protester, Evelina, spoke outside the headquarters.
“We can’t have such an unpresentable representative in a Spanish institution. He’s causing discredit for women and football and the most unforgivable thing is that he has occupied all the media instead of the players being admired.”
The government, which cannot sack Rubiales, are now seeking to have him suspended using a legal procedure before a sports tribunal.
Head of the state-run National Sports Council, Victor Francos, says the council is ready to suspend Mr Rubiales once he presents to the Sports Administrative Court.
“I think we are in a position for this to be the ‘Me too’ of Spanish football and for this to be a change and therefore the Government wants to warn about it, wants to be very forceful when it comes to saying that there are things that cannot happen again and excuse me for being emotional, because I do it sincerely, with great emotion, that I ask them without having done anything and without feeling guilty of anything. But as the person in charge of Spanish sports, I should apologise to the players because they didn’t deserve this this week.”
