Nfter the kiss scandal following the World Cup final, the Spanish women’s national team no longer wants to play as long as Luis Rubiales is president of the Spanish Football Association. 56 players have made a corresponding statement in which they call on the head of the association to resign, as reported by British and Spanish media. Among them are all 23 footballers who won the World Cup with Spain.
Rubiales kissed the player Jennifer Hermoso on the mouth without being asked at the award ceremony for the Spanish soccer world champions in Australia last Sunday. Then there was sharp criticism and outrage, the world association FIFA initiated disciplinary proceedings. At a crisis meeting of the Spanish football association RFEF on Friday in Madrid, he presented himself as a victim of a “hunt” and vehemently refused to resign.
Spanish politicians and football representatives reacted with sharp criticism. “Mr Rubiales still does not know where he is or what he has been doing. He’s not up to date. He must resign immediately and spare us further embarrassment,” Acting Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz wrote on the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Sports authority wants to apply for suspension
The highest Spanish sports authority CSD announced that it would apply to the Tad Sports Court for the suspension of the football association boss. The authority will initiate this on Friday, said CSD boss Víctor Francos at a press conference in Tarragona in northeastern Spain. “Today we will file a complaint with the Tad so that they can assess whether there has been serious misconduct,” Francos said. He asked the Sports Court to meet on Monday.
The incumbent Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had described Rubiales’ behavior as “unacceptable” days ago, but at the same time admitted that the government had no direct influence on the RFEF. Whether Rubiales should remain president of the Spanish Football Association is not up to him, stressed Sánchez. The association is not controlled by the government.
The head of the league, Javier Tebas, was particularly harsh on Rubiales. “Insults, boasting, blackmail, threats, espionage and persecution, fraudulent use of association organs, we suffer from many things and have denounced many things. The list of men and women harmed by Luis Rubiales over these years is too long and this has to stop,” Tebas wrote on X. “It is impossible to attribute his misogynist and despicable behavior to an absurd conspiracy when the reputational damage for all of Spanish football is already inevitable,” added Tebas.
Players’ union Fifpro also called for “immediate disciplinary action” against Rubiales and welcomed FIFA’s disciplinary process. In addition, the players’ union wrote to the European Football Union to investigate the UEFA vice-president.
Meanwhile, Borja Iglesias no longer wants to play for the national team in protest against Rubiales as head of the Spanish football association. “As a player and as a person, I don’t feel represented by what happened,” the Real Betis striker wrote on Network X on Friday not go unpunished”. The two-time international added that he was acting “for a fairer, more humane and more decent football”.
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