The President of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Luis Rubiales, has refused to resign following calls for his resignation amid the kissing incident at the finals of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup between La Roja and England.
While speaking at the emergency general assembly called to address the issue on Friday, Rubiales repeatedly told those in attendance that he would not be resigning, uttering the words “I will not resign” on four separate occasions and in quick succession.
The 46-year-old former footballer claims the kiss was “mutual” and “with consent” and further added that he is a victim of an unjust witch hunt by those he termed as “false feminists”.
“Well, we are facing an historic event, one of the happiest days of Spanish football,” Rubiales stated. “World champions, a great thing. For this we have been working for a long time in the Spanish football federation, and we are proud of it.
“But there is also a fact that I have to regret, and that is, well, everything that has happened between me and a player, who I have a magnificent relationship with – as with others – and where I have surely made a mistake, I have to admit, because in a moment of maximum effusiveness, without any bad intentions, without any bad faith, well, what happened, happened. I think it was very spontaneous.
The saga began during the medal ceremony of the Women’s World Cup final, which Spain won last Sunday at the Stadium Australia, when Rubiales was seen kissing Spain’s all-time top scorer and silver ball winner Jennifer Hermoso on her lip while holding tight to her head.
The 33-year-old CF Pachuca forward was later heard saying she never consented to the kiss. “I didn’t like it, but what can I do?” was heard from Hermoso, and she has since asked the Spanish FA to take action against the football executive.
Rubiales’ disgusting act marred a celebration of glory for the Spanish women’s team, who became world champions for the first time. He was also heard in the dressing room afterwards, telling the players he would take them all to Ibiza and that he would be marrying Hermoso there.
Although he claimed he made a mistake, the RFEF president seems unremorseful and has refused to step down despite calls from around the world, including Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, who outrightly stated that Rubiales’ apology for the “unacceptable gesture” was “not enough.”
“Everyone there – even some of them my family, my daughters – the desire that could have been there in that kiss is exactly the same that could have been as giving a kiss to one of my daughters. No more, no less,” the embattled Rubiales added.
“It was a spontaneous kiss … It was spontaneous, mutual, euphoric and with consent, which is the key. This is the key to all of the criticism, of all of the campaign which has been mounted in this country: that it was without consent. No. It was with consent.”
He also claimed he was in “no position of dominance” during the incident and only wanted to comfort Hermoso, who had missed a penalty in the second half to put her side 2-0 up, despite the fact the game had ended at the point of the kiss and was totally needless.
“When Jenni first showed up, she lifted me up from the ground. She grabbed me by the hips, by the legs, I don’t remember well,” he said. “She lifted me up from the ground – and we almost fell down.
“And when she put me down on the ground, we hugged each other. She’s the one who picked me up in her arms and she pulled me into her body. We hugged and I told her, ‘Forget about the penalty. You were fantastic, we wouldn’t have won this World Cup without you.’
She replied to me, ‘You are awesome.’ And I said, ‘A small peck?’ And she said, ‘OK.’
“Then the peck happened during all of this celebration with her patting me on the side a few times and then excusing herself with one more hand on the side and going off laughing. That’s the whole sequence. That the whole world understood, that the whole world thought was an anecdote, and above all, she said was an anecdote and nothing more.”
Rubiales’ actions prompted the football governing body FIFA on Thursday to open a disciplinary panel as they revealed he may have violated the game’s “basic rules of decent conduct.”
Amid all of the calls from ex-players, journalists, politicians, experts, and active players from both Spain and the rest of the world, the RFEF president has vehemently refused to step down. Rather, he received numerous applauses from the male-dominated assembly.
This adds to the many disturbing protest from the Spanish women’s team against head coach Jorge Vilda, who they claimed treated them badly and led to 15 players dropping from the national team.
