The president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, is currently at the centre of a storm of criticism after he kissed a Spanish women football player Hermoso on the lips during the medal ceremony following the team’s 1-0 win against England in Sydney during the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Rubiales, the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, kissed the forward on the lips during the medal ceremony.
FIFA opened disciplinary proceedings against Rubiales on Thursday. In a statement, the body said, “The FIFA disciplinary committee informed Luis Rubiales, president of the Spanish Football Association, today that it is opening disciplinary proceedings against him based on the events that occurred during the final”.
FIFA said the incident, “may constitute violations of article 13 paragraphs 1 and 2 of the FIFA disciplinary code”.
The United States winger, Megan Rapinoe, has hit out at Luis Rubiales for assaulting Hermoso at the World Cup. She said, “It made me think about how much we are required to endure. Think how much that Spanish team had to shoulder. Some of the players who stood up way back last year [to protest poor treatment by their coach and federation] still are not on the team. Maybe, that was something that galvanised them, but you should not have to have that.”
Tamara Ramos, a former colleague of Rubiales, has claimed to have been subjected to abuse from him a number of years ago. Daily Mail reports that Rubiales used defamatory words like ‘shut the f** up’ , ‘Don’t pay attention to this pregnant woman. She has lost her mind’ or ‘Here I do what comes out of the tip of my d**’ when she was pregnant
Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, also condemned Rubiales, describing the incident as unacceptable. Sanchez said, “What we saw was an unacceptable gesture, but also Mr. Rubiales’ apologies are not enough and are not even adequate, and therefore he has to continue to take steps to clarify what we all saw in the media.”
