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The head of Spain’s football association has refused to quit and says he is the victim of “false feminism” as he faces condemnation for kissing a player without her consent after the country won the Women’s World Cup.
Luis Rubiales repeated “I will not resign” five times in a defiant speech at the end of a week of outrage after he kissed midfielder Jenni Hermoso on the lips during post-match celebrations.
But politicians continue to call for him to be ejected for the forced kiss, which came as the players filed past him before lifting the trophy after beating England in Sunday’s final in Australia. Spanish media had reported that he would resign on Friday.
The episode has put a spotlight on the treatment of women in Spanish society and world football, where the female game has gained more attention in recent years but remains marginalised as the male-dominated authorities prioritise the men’s sport.
In the dressing room in Sydney soon after the incident Hermoso was recorded on video saying: “I didn’t like it . . . But what could I do?” She later said in a statement from her union and her agent that “we are working to ensure that acts such as those never go unpunished”.
Rubiales, president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, has faced an avalanche of condemnation from politicians, footballers and sports officials. Spanish media had reported that he planned to quit on Friday after Fifa, the game’s governing body, opened disciplinary proceedings against him.
But speaking to an extraordinary meeting of the football association, Rubiales said: “False feminism is a great scourge in this country.” Describing the kiss as “spontaneous, mutual, euphoric”, he said he had become the target of a “social assassination”.
He did, however, apologise to Spain’s royal family for grabbing his crotch while celebrating in the director’s box at the game, where he was standing next to Queen Letizia and one of her daughters.
But his speech did not signal an end to the controversy. Yolanda Díaz, an acting deputy prime minister who had prematurely celebrated reports of his impending resignation, described his address as “unacceptable”.
“The government must act and take urgent measures,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Impunity for macho behaviour is over. Rubiales cannot continue in office.”
Earlier in the week, Irene Montero, Spain’s acting equality minister, described the forced kiss as “sexual violence”. Later she said the incident was “an extraordinary example . . . of how the right to sexual freedom is violated by the absence of consent”.
Spain’s women’s football league, Liga F, said it had lodged a complaint over Rubiales’s actions with the national sports council, a government body.
One of the first male players to speak out, Isco Alarcón of Real Betis, said: “If it was not consensual, I think it is an abuse of power. I give all my support to Jenni Hermoso.”
Rubiales, who has led the Spanish federation since 2018, initially called his critics “idiots” but later issued an apology. “I was wrong, I have to admit it,” he said earlier in the week.
Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s acting prime minister, said the apology was “inadequate” and that he must “take further steps to clarify his behaviour”.
Megan Rapinoe, one of the stars of the US World Cup-winning sides of 2015 and 2019, said: “What kind of upside-down world are we in? On the biggest stage, where you should be celebrating, Jenni has to be physically assaulted by this guy,” Rapinoe said.
Spain’s win made it one of only two nations, alongside Germany, to have won both the men’s and women’s World Cup. La Roja’s victory came despite a team mutiny against coach Jorge Vilda last year over his management methods.
Prior to the final, Fifa president Gianni Infantino provoked a backlash when he said women should “pick the right battles” to “convince us men what we have to do” to achieve equality in the game.
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