Luis Rubiales’ behaviour has made me ashamed to be Spanish
182
Editor’s Note: This story is included in The Athletic’s Best of 2023. View the full list.
Luis Rubiales, president of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), celebrated Spain’s victory on the biggest stage for women’s football, the World Cup, by touching his crotch.
He only apologised because Queen Letizia and Princess Sofia of Spain were by his side. As if to say that, without them in front of him, this would have been an action worthy of the head of the national game in Spain.
And then, in a speech that will forever haunt Spanish sport, he tried to justify himself; a justification even worse than the act itself.
“I’m going to say this looking at Jorge Vilda (the Spain women’s manager),” Rubiales said. “I got very excited, to the point of losing control. At the moment we won the World Cup and your reaction was to turn to the box and dedicate it to me.
“I replied that no, it was yours. I pointed at you and said ‘you, you’. At that moment, I pointed at you and said ‘ole your balls’. Of course, I have to apologise to the Royal House.”
He touched his genitals after the greatest triumph of Spanish women’s football and dedicated it to a coach, a man, saying “ole tus huevos”. Can there be a more shameful way to disgrace the 23 female footballers who made Spain the World Cup champions?
Oh, but of course there was. Rubiales then proceeded to kiss striker Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the medal ceremony.
“She (Hermoso) grabbed me and brought me closer to her body,” said Rubiales. “We hugged… and then I asked: ‘A peck?’ She said ‘OK’. It happened, then she left, patting me on the back with a smile on her face. This was the full sequence.”
Hermoso, however, said on Instagram Live that she “didn’t like it”, declined to engage with Rubiales’ “apology” statements, and has left it up to others to try to defend him.
Rubiales, though, had still more to say.
“Today they are not trying to do justice,” he said at an extraordinary RFEF assembly on Friday. “They are trying to kill me.”
Rubiales made a speech that made me feel ashamed to be Spanish. He tried to cast men as the victims as, his words oozing with narcissism, he attempted to put the focus on what the men of the RFEF have suffered.
Not the players, the women who have hit wall after wall whenever they have asked for something better. The women who have reached the point of fighting among themselves out of sheer frustration. And not the professionals who work at the RFEF and try to do a decent job.
No, they are instead being represented by someone who has made it very clear how much he cares about women’s sport. Someone who appeared to only want to win a World Cup to endorse himself and his male ally, Vilda.
Rubiales tirelessly used the words “false feminism” in his speech, manipulatively referring to the presence of his daughters in the auditorium. The implication felt clear: “How can I be sexist if I have two daughters?”
He tried to give us a lesson in “real feminism”, as if he knew what that meant or felt like.
Well, I’ll tell you what this feels like.
We came back from the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand a few days ago, still pretty raw, with an emotional hangover.
We had seen an elite football spectacle. The streets were full of people watching women’s football. Press rooms at women’s matches were full of journalists. Press conferences in which men’s teams were asked about a women’s World Cup for once.
And finally, we saw a generation of footballers who have suffered so much win a precious title.
To return home and find a picture like this, then, is hard. Really hard. Two men, Rubiales and Vilda, are starring in the greatest success of Spanish women’s football and the frustration only increases every time Rubiales opens his mouth.
This feeling will not be a new one to the Spanish players, however. Claudia Pina, Mapi Leon, Amaiur Sarriegi, Lola Gallardo, Patri Guijarro, Ainhoa Moraza and Nerea Eizagirre — seven of the 15 footballers who sent resignation emails to the Spanish Federation last September and did not represent their country at the World Cup — were aware of it. Honour to all of them.
But let’s also remember those players who went to the World Cup, who felt that the RFEF was impossible to change but wanted to play on the biggest stage. It is not easy to change that institution; we have all seen that now.
It has been a week of suffocating pressure from clubs, sports institutions and even politicians uniting behind Rubiales’ departure after his behaviour at the World Cup final. The outpouring of condemnation had given us a little hope that, maybe, all was not lost after all.
But no, even that has not been enough for him and his manhood.
Rubiales, to everyone’s surprise, shouted on Friday: “I’m not going to resign!” Then came the applause — started by the Spain men’s coach, Luis de la Fuente.
It is no longer only the indignation of the players, who were referred to in Spain as “childish and capricious”, it is the indignation of an entire world watching with sadness that Spain cannot celebrate a World Cup in peace.
With Rubiales’ words, Spanish sport can only feel embarrassment, sadness and the feeling that there is still a long way to go. But perhaps more than we expected.
(Top photo: Noemi Llamas/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)
Subscribe to The Athletic for in-depth coverage of your favorite players, teams, leagues and clubs. Try a week on us.
Before joining The Athletic as a football writer, Laia Cervelló worked at Diario Sport reporting on FC Barcelona for four years. She has also worked for another four years for BeIN SPORTS Spain and GOLTV. She began her career as a journalist at 'betevé', the public television station in Barcelona, where she spent almost nine years.
Sort By:
Subscribe to join the conversation.
A
Alain M.
· Aug 25
All of the efforts by the players & organizers to create something transcendent & lift the game to even greater heights, to further dispel the critics of a burgeoning global movement working against systemic sexism, and these guys put it on themselves to claw as much credit for success away from the players as possible & undermine the sport with their miserable spectacle and news stealing antics.
Cool.
· Aug 25
To recap: He’s puzzled that kissing an employee on the lips is an inappropriate act of celebration. He’s saying the “peck” was consensual which is why he had to grab her head with both hands to forcibly pull her in.
J
Joshua F.
· Aug 25
The most disgraceful thing I've ever seen on a sports stage. Spain played terrific and their players should be celebrated. These two bozos are attention hogs and egomaniacs who need to know that the public loves them no matter what they do when THEY WERE NEVER ON THE PITCH.
They've taken a top moment for Spain soccer and made it all about them rather than the players. Not to mention all the dynamics of a person coming onto an employee.
Disgraceful from top to bottom.
No comments:
Post a Comment