Only hours after the head of the Spanish soccer federation insisted he would not step down for grabbing and kissing a member of Spain’s winning team fully on the lips at a Women’s World Cup medals ceremony last weekend in Australia, players on the squad announced on Friday that they would refuse to play until he was gone.
In a joint statement issued through their union, dozens of players said they would not take the field to play for Spain “if the current managers continue.”
In the statement, the player kissed, Jennifer Hermoso, said that “at no time did I consent to the kiss that he gave me.”
The players’ ultimatum came after Luis Rubiales, president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, said at a news conference that he would not step aside, arguing he was the victim of “social assassination.”
News reports had predicted that Mr. Rubiales would quit after five years at the helm of Spanish soccer, but he instead took a defiant stand.
“I will not resign,” he said several times at an extraordinary meeting of the federation, to loud applause from some and silence from others, adding that “I will fight this to the end” and accusing his critics of “false feminism.”
In their response, the players say they condemn “behaviors that have violated the dignity of women,” and that they expected “forceful answers from the public powers” to address the incident.
The government is limited in its ability to punish members of the soccer federation, but after Mr. Rubiales made his remarks on Friday, it said it was taking steps to have him suspended. Víctor Francos, president of the National Sports Council and secretary of state for sports, said on Cadena SER radio: “We’re going to act — we’ve activated all the mechanisms to take appropriate measures.”
The controversy was a reminder that despite the Spanish team’s steep trajectory into the highest echelons of women’s soccer — the team did not qualify for a Women’s World Cup until 2015 — the program has been dogged by sexism and other scandals.
Most recently, 15 players revolted last year against the coach, Jorge Vilda, and the federation led by Mr. Rubiales. They complained of outdated training methods and controlling behavior, and refused to play for the national team, although some of them returned and played in the World Cup.
Players on the women’s national team have also said that they have been disrespected by top male soccer executives, saying that the men’s team was given superior equipment and treatment. Mr. Vilda has emerged as a polarizing figure in Spanish soccer, but Mr. Rubiales thanked him effusively on Friday and said that he would be rewarded with a new contract.
It sucks that this is overshadowing their win. Spain should be celebrating their championship, not dealing with this dude. Just step down.
Imagine marking the goal that seals the championship, and even right before your mind fully assimilates the celebration you have ahead, some idiot with authority over you comes and ruins it without absolutely nobody asking for it.
I dunno. It does suck in the short-term, of course. But this problem has been festering for a long time, in Spain and elsewhere. The inevitable victory for the women over the boneheads will be a fantastic legacy. And no one is ever going to forget who won it in 2023.
Welp, I guess that gets rid of the hand waving of her feelings about it. Of course acknowledging that women have feelings is… checks notes… “false feminism”.
False feminism: when you false flag a — uhhhm… feminism?
It’s going to be a long transformation. Football is a male-dominated sport with men at the top. It will be a slow process to change the culture.
Not to mention culture in the country of Spain is very patriarchal. The women are, in turn, very strong themselves because they deal with so much “macho” bullshit. It’s crazy.
I mean, take this all with a grain of salt. This is my perception living there for a few years as a man from the US. It’s noticeably different, and we have large swaths of the country that operate on a similar male-centric mindset.
Care to expand on this? I’m interested in your perspective on this.
I mean, as I said, it’s a casual observation from an outsider. Historically, sure, you could very much argue there is a trend toward machismo and patriarchal structures in Spain, as well as a lot of spanish-speaking countries. I personally got myself in a lot of situations where I was observing a man acting really aggressively toward a woman and intervened. Everyone around me (my local friends) found it really weird that I would see an issue and/or step in out of some sense of duty. Even one or two of the women that I was attempting to help would sort of seem taken aback.
Again, I’m making a huge generalization, but there is something to be said about the difference in interpersonal relationships across different cultures. And in my experience, in Spain in particular, I noticed very sort of “aggressive” tactics of “flirting” among spanish men toward women in general, but also on the flip side, got the impression that the Spanish women grew to be very strong in pushing back when it came to unknown men. Again, these are my thoroughly biased, anecdotal findings from my years spent there.
But again, there’s also a noticeable difference in race relations. More sort of blunt racism that is treated as “normal,” whereas in my country the racists are more likely to coat their racism or deny it while obviously having a racist bent to their words and actions.
Spain is a pretty religious country, and that does tend to go hand-in-hand with some sense of patriachal behavior/thinking in a lot of cases. Now, I also lived in South America for a few years and there are some similar patterns there. But in my mind, Spain is distinctly more noticeable in these respects.
That was basically sexual assault.
That was
basicallysexual assault.No “basically” about it.
Straight up sexual assault.
Let’s be real about this. It’s a pretty obvious inference that he’s done sexist and gross shit before. Just that this time, there isn’t no he said she said to hide behind. No wonder he thinks it’s social assassination, he’s been getting away with this shit, why shouldn’t he now?
I’ll give him benefit of doubt. Would he done this in front of public if he thought it was an act of harassment?
Him thinking that this shit is okay does not make the situation better.
It makes him a rude idiot instead of sexual predator
Rude? This is beyond rude. The fact that you think grabbing random people and forcibly kissing them is only “rude” says a fucking lot.
I wonder how men who defend this behavior would feel if it were gay men doing it to them instead. Actually I don’t wonder, I know exactly how they’d react.
Last time I kissed a guy was my instructor after my first flight on a paraglider. Sure some people could stay composed in that situation but the first time running off of a mountain, gliding over powerlines, aiming for a small landing strip and then surviving just made me want to kiss the guy that helped me do it. It wasn’t rational or sexual but pure adrenaline and emotion.
It wasn’t on camera and there weren’t any journalists asking him if it was consensual. So I guess I got away with murder that day.
The fact that you think grabbing random people and forcibly kissing them is only “rude” says a fucking lot.
Oh yes, let’s go back to 1945 for my defence.
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He thought he’d get away it, sure. How does that change anything? It makes it worse, surely? So baked into the culture these players have to deal with, randoms on the internet will stick up for the creep. FFS
Did you read the article? He also grabbed his crotch in celebration in front of the queen and princess
Everybody here knows that 15 players protested the cruel actions of their coach a few months ago and were…left off the team. Right? 3 apologized and were allowed back on the team. There is a history of misogyny on this team before this incident. The culture in Spanish soccer is rotten to the core.
I’m sorry, but *football. Spain is outside of USA.
I’m sorry, but *fútbol. La gente de España hablan español
La gente de España *habla español.
Nuts. Thanks though.
I’m sorry, but *furbo. O a ver qué clase de español te crees que hablamos /s
Fútbol no es más que un neologismo, es un calco de football, al igual que balompié, que es una traducción directa.
Not necessarily, there’s regional languages such as Catalan. The phrase is kinda iffy considering what Spanish nationalists think of those languages.
Assoccer, or socker you mean?
The article on New York Times is paywalled, so here is the alternative Archived link that you can read without ads: https://archive.is/1KSa0
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Probably was an afterthought. The article was updated 8 hours after publishing, which is probably why that’s added on at the end.
I’m glad they’re taking a stand like this, especially after winning.
Wait, haven’t we seen this before? 12 out of the 15 players who protested the same way about their coach’s brutal tactics were left off the team.
That’s kinda crazy they won without what’s likely some of their top players.
More importantly there appears to be a culture of mistreating women.
Quite the move by them. Hopefully he will be gone.
They should focus on playing soccer. Leaving the woke politics out please!
/s
Does this dude have a history of being a perv or something? I’m going against the grain here, but this seems a little bit excessive, no?
He only kissed someone on their mouth on International television during a forced interaction without their content while having the power to deny said person to play in the team again before pointing out that any critique of that action is nothing more than social assassination and he was the real victim in this. Gtfo. If he was confident enough to do this in public on TV you dont wanna know how he acts behind closed doors.
Read his statements on the article. He doubled and tripled down. Played the victim. He’s a man in a position of authority who believes his own perspective is more important than sexually harassing his employees. It’s unacceptable.
Sexual assault is a pretty big deal. Maybe if he immediately apologized, it would be different. I, for one, am glad people are finally drawing a line in the sand.
Can you imagine your boss kissing you on the lips? Would you ever feel comfortable at work again? Dozens of women have refused to play with him involved, we can intuit theres more going on behind the scenes as well.
Do you understand how consent works? When you violate it and do something of a sexual nature to someone that is sexual assault. It doesn’t matter what he’s done in the past. He sexually assaulted someone live on international television.
I certainly do. I actually watched the video after posting this. It’s even less of an event than I expected it was. Calling this sexual assault is a pretty scary dilution of an otherwise serious issue.
He literally grabs her fucking head and forces her to kiss him. I guarantee if a gay man did this to you you’d flip your shit. Fucking creep.
