In a surprising speech, the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Luis Rubiales, defended himself this Friday amid the controversy over the non-consensual kiss to the soccer player Jennifer Hermoso and assured that he will not resign from his position. “I’m going to fight until the end,” he said.
During an extraordinary assembly convened by the RFEF, Rubiales said that he “asked for forgiveness without palliatives” for making a gesture touching his genital area in the central box of the stadium, during the final of the Women’s Soccer World Cup.
Despite what was seen and the position of the soccer player, the leader said that “it was a spontaneous, mutual, euphoric and consented kiss, that this is the key to all the criticism, to the entire process that has been set up in this country It was consented.”
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“Whoever sees the video [of the moment of the kiss] will understand that before 80,000 people at the time, before millions of people on television, before all the people who were there, including my daughters, the desire that I could have in that kiss was exactly the same as I could have kissing one of my daughters. There is no desire and there is no position of dominance. Everyone understands it, even if something else is being sold in many of the media, both those that are paying homage to the Mr. (Javier) Tebas as those who are paying homage to false feminism, which is a great scourge in this country,” said the leader amid various applause from the assembly members.
After other statements, which included responses to Spanish government officials -such as Yolanda Díaz, acting second vice president of the Spanish government, and Irene Montero, acting minister for equality-, he made it clear that he does not intend to leave his position, despite what he knows foresaw.
Rubiales insisted that the kiss he gave Jenni Hermoso after the World Cup final “is free, that it is mutual, that it is consented to, but obviously I have to apologize for the context in which it occurred. I’m not out of the world and I know I was wrong about that too. But do you think that this is to suffer the hunt that I am suffering? Do you honestly believe it? […] So that they ask for my resignation? Is it so serious that I leave having done the best management in the history of Spanish football? Do you think I have to resign? Well, I’m going to tell you something: I’m not going to resign! I will not resign! I’m not resigning! I will not resign! I’m not going to resign! He shouted.
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Rubiales’ fiery speech
Rubiales began his speech in front of the representatives of the clubs by saying that the assembly was the area in which he had to give “all the explanations.” In addition, he affirmed that he received many messages of support: “There are many people who, although silenced, are supporting me. I would say that they are more than against it.”
Rubiales first apologized for an obscene gesture he made in the box during the final between Spain and England, in which a video captured the moment in which he grabs his genitals, just meters from Queen Letizia.
As for the kiss to Hermoso, he forcefully stated that he was “spoiled”.
“It was a spontaneous, mutual, euphoric and consented kiss, which is the key to all the criticism, to the entire process that has been set up in this country. It was consented. This player missed a penalty. I have a great relationship with all the Players, we have been a family for more than one more. We had a very affectionate moment during the concentration,” he said.
He also detailed how it was the moment he kissed the soccer player.
“She was the one who lifted me in her arms, brought me closer to her body. We hugged and I told her ‘forget the penalty, without you we wouldn’t have won the World Cup’. She told me ‘you’re a crack’, and I told her ‘what? a little peck? .And she said ‘okay’. And she left laughing. That’s the sequence of everything. That everyone understood., and she said it was an anecdote and so on”.
Rubiales also said that he “is not trying to do justice” with the demands for him to leave office, but rather “a social murder is being attempted.” “They are trying to kill me. As a Spaniard, we have to reflect on where we are going,” he said.
Before the assembly, most of the Spanish media ruled out that Rubiales would submit his resignation due to the scandal unleashed by what he experienced after the World Cup final. However, the leader surprised by announcing that he will remain in his position.
Rubiales pointed to some Spanish government officials, such as Vice President Yolanda Díaz, the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, and the Minister of Social Rights and the 2030 Agenda, Ione Belarra Urteaga, and announced that he will sue them.
“Mrs. Yolanda Díaz, Ms. Montero, Ms. Belarra, Mr. Echenique, have referred to this action with the word vexation, sexual violence, without consent, assault. What will the women who have really assaulted them think?
