FIFA Suspends Spanish Football Chief Luis Rubiales For Kissing Jenni Hermoso After World Cup Final
FIFA suspended Luis Rubiales as president of Spain's football federation on Saturday for kissing Spanish Women's World Cup player Jenni Hermoso on the lips, and banned him from making contact with her.
FIFA suspended Luis Rubiales as president of Spain’s football federation on Saturday for kissing Spanish Women’s World Cup player Jenni Hermoso on the lips and banned him from making contact with her.
“(We) decided today to provisionally suspend Mr Luis Rubiales from all football-related activities at the national and international level," said world football’s governing body in a statement, explaining it would last 90 days, pending their disciplinary proceedings.
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The win by the Spanish women’s team was marred by this dark moment which will forever be etched in the history books after Luis Rubiales’s major misconduct.
The incident occurred during the presentation ceremony where Ruibales was seen on camera, making contact with Hermoso. The player had also expressed her discomfort with his conduct in an Instagram Live taken by another player but was quick to retract the statement, likely due to pressure from the higher authorities.
But after public outrage and the Women’s team stand against Rubiales it was made clear that the incident was indeed crossing boundaries which Hermoso was not comfortable with and demanded the resignation of Rubiales. Initially, he had apologised for his behaviour but took back his statement claiming that the incident was a ‘consensual peck’, according to AFP reports. He also refused to resign from his post and was insistent on this decision as well. He called the pressure to resign an attempt ‘publically assassinate him.’
He did offer his apologies for grabbing his groin as he celebrated the Spanish Women’s team’s victory in the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Rubiales was quoted by AFP, as saying, “I want to say sorry for the deeds that happened in a moment of euphoria, I grabbed that part of my body and did so looking at Jorge Vilda (the coach).
Amongst the top-flight clubs, neither Real Madrid nor Barcelona spoke of the incident but it was Atletico Madrid that condemned the actions and demanded the resignation of Rubiales.
READ MORE: Spanish Federation Accuses Jenni Hermoso of ‘Lies’ About Football Chief’s Kiss – News18
Amongst the male players, it was Real Betis striker, Borja Iglesias who stepped down from playing for the Spanish National team as a sign of protest against the actions of Luis Rubiales and vowed to never play for the side until there is change, referring to the resignation of Luis Rubiales.
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