Did Luis Rubiales just make the worst decision of his career, possibly ending it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Spain’s 1-0 win against England in the Women’s World Cup final, emotions were high with happiness immeasurable; however, does that excuse the kiss shared between Luis Rubiales and Jenni Hermoso? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The president of the Spanish Football Federation Luis Rubiales and team captain Jenni Hermoso engaged in an awkward kiss during the awards ceremony. Afterwards, Hermoso immediately told her teammates, \u201cHey, I didn’t like it,\u201d while in their locker room. While inside of the players\u2019 dressing room, Rubiales, in contrast, was overheard on an Instagram live saying that he was going to \u201cpay for a trip to Ibiza where he was going to marry Hermoso.\u201d Hermoso later spoke about the incident on Instagram stating that she did not enjoy or consent to the kiss, and was a victim of sexism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After this incident, the Spanish FA published a statement on behalf of Jenni Hermoso, which stated that Hermoso and Rubiales have a strong relationship and that the kiss that happened between them was completely consensual and happened due to the happiness they experienced from winning the world cup. Hermoso later revealed that she did not write this statement and was not even informed that such a statement was going to be made. Many people were shocked and angry about how Rubiales could get away with forcing Hermoso to kiss him, and declared that he should resign as president. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In contrast, Rubiales proclaimed that the criticism surrounding the topic is \u201cidiotic and should be ignored.\u201d The following day Rubiales admitted publicly that he was in the wrong, however this was not enough to compensate for the harm done. On August 26th FIFA (F\u00e9d\u00e9ration Internationale de Football Association) temporarily suspended Rubiales from any football-related activities for 90 days. Rubiales expressed that a tiny consensual peck should not be a reason to end his career. Although he refused, representatives of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) still urged his resignation. The entirety of the winning Women\u2019s World Cup team, along with elite figures in the male Spanish football community, including the FCBarcelona manager, have attacked Rubiales following the incident. The entire team also refused to play for the Spanish national side unless there was a change within the presidency of the football federation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Presumably due to the pressure put on him, on the 10th of September Rubiales notified Pedro Rocha (the interim president of the RFEF) announcing his resignation. The directors of the RFEF have now called an election to find a replacement for Rubiales. Spanish prosecutors have stated that Hermoso being forced to defend Rubiales could be classified as coercion and the act itself could constitute as sexual assault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0Apart from a potential criminal case and an investigation launched into Rubiales by Spain\u2019s Administrative Sports Court, the incident has started more conversations on the sexual abuse that many female athletes have endured, and opened many people\u00b4s eyes on why such matters should be spoken about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bibliography:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Boxerman, Aaron. \u201cLuis Rubiales and Spain\u2019s Kiss Scandal at the World Cup, Explained.\u201d The New York Times<\/em>, The New York Times, 29 Aug. 2023, www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/29\/world\/europe\/spain-world-cup-kiss-rubiales-what-happened.html. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dazed. \u201cLuis Rubiales: A Rundown of the Controversy around the Spanish FA President.\u201d Dazed<\/em>, 11 Sept. 2023, www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/60674\/1\/luis-rubiales-controversy-2023-world-cup-spain-women-spanish-fa-president. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLuis Rubiales: What to Know about the World Cup Kiss Scandal.\u201d Reuters<\/em>, Thomson Reuters, 31 Aug. 2023, www.reuters.com\/sports\/soccer\/soccer-how-is-scandal-over-luis-rubiales-world-cup-kiss-playing-out-2023-08-31\/. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Wamsley, Laurel. \u201cSpain, Soccer and an Unwanted World Cup Kiss: The Luis Rubiales Firestorm, Explained.\u201d NPR<\/em>, NPR, 18 Sept. 2023, www.npr.org\/2023\/09\/15\/1199727359\/luis-rubiales-spain-soccer-world-cup-controversy-explained. Ronald, Issy, et al. \u201cLuis Rubiales Resigns as Spanish Soccer President Following Unwanted Kiss with World Cup Winner Jennifer Hermoso.\u201d CNN<\/em>, Cable News Network, 11 Sept. 2023, edition.cnn.com\/2023\/09\/10\/football\/luis-rubiales-kiss-resign-football-intl-spt\/index.html.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Did Luis Rubiales just make the worst decision of his career, possibly ending it? After Spain’s 1-0 win against England in the Women’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":1077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,6,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-sports","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1076"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1078,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076\/revisions\/1078"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}