Luis Rubiales: New allegations after a kiss at the World Cup award ceremony

Women’s World Cup
After a kiss at the award ceremony: new allegations against the head of the Spanish association – also from the Prime Minister

The football world is also discussing the kiss from Spain’s association president Luis Rubiales after the World Cup final. The association apparently tried to quickly catch up with the affair, but has come under more criticism.

Spain’s footballers should actually celebrate the World Cup title after beating England 1-0 in the final. But the great success is overshadowed by an incident at the award ceremony: Spain’s association president Luis Rubiales kissed player Jennifer Hermoso on the mouth – apparently without her consent.

Since then, the head of the RFEF football association has faced a lot of criticism. Spain’s Equal Opportunities Minister Irene Montero described the kiss as a “form of sexual violence”. And the person concerned had also expressed an initial reaction: “I didn’t like that.” She wouldn’t have known how to react. The fact that Hermoso was later quoted in an official association statement with relativizing statements is said to have happened without her knowledge, writes the Spanish sports portal “Relevo”.

Rubiales allegedly wanted to convince Hermoso of a joint video

According to the report, after the first negative reactions, Rubiales wanted to convince the world champion to record a video together, which would then be published on the Internet. In it, both should explain how the incident came about – apparently to exonerate Rubiales. However, the player refused to participate. Even when coach Jorge Vilda tried to influence her and her family, she didn’t respond. So the head of the association had to publish his apology video alone.

In it he publicly admitted that he “probably made a mistake” and apologized. He has to learn from it and wants to be more careful in the future. The kiss happened “spontaneously” and “without any bad intentions or bad will”. Jennifer Hermoso also weighed down in a statement from the RFEF – at least it seemed so at first. One should “not pay too much attention to this gesture of friendship and gratitude,” she was quoted as saying. You and the President have “a great relationship with each other”.

But according to “Relevo” these quotes were not coordinated with the striker. Rather, the RFEF public relations department is said to have written these statements in the press release without coordinating them with Hermoso – and exonerating the head of the association. The world champion apparently did not want to comment on the matter.

PM Sanchez calls apology ‘insufficient’

It is significant that after the first World Cup title by a Spanish women’s team, the discussion revolved around the misconduct of a man instead of the performance of the players. Rubiales has led the association since 2018 and has also been Vice President of Uefa since 2019. The affair should not be over for him yet, personal consequences are still in the room.

Especially after Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez commented on it. At the reception of the world champions in Madrid, the Prime Minister said Rubiales’ apology was “insufficient”. “What we saw is an unacceptable gesture,” he said.

Sources: Statement by Rubiales / “Relevo” / Cadena Ser / DPA