The past fortnight should have been about Spanish soccer celebrating a massive milestone. Which is the women’s soccer team emulating what the men did during the SA-hosted 2010 World Cup — reaching a maiden final and winning the global spectacle for the first time.

It should have been a moment celebrating the best Women’s World Cup to date. A World Cup that saw new nations rise above some of the traditional powerhouses in the ecosystem.

The Spaniards — who had never even reached the semifinal before the 2023 tournament Down Under, should be basking in the glory of being the last team standing following this revolutionary World Cup.

Instead, the reality is stark and the last few days have been filled with all sorts of twists and turns — with the president of Spain’s national soccer federation Luis Rubiales at the centre of the storm over allegedly forcefully kissing Spanish midfielder Jennifer Hermoso after the final.

Jenni Hermoso after Spain won the 2023 Women’s World Cup. (Photo: Marc Atkins/Getty Images)

‘I’m innocent’

In spite of mounting pressure calling for him to vacate the post he has occupied since 2018, the Spanish soccer boss has refused and maintained his innocence in the whole incident, insisting the act was consensual.  

“Is a consensual peck going to take me out of here? I won’t resign. I will fight until the end,” he said at a Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) emergency assembly on Friday, 25 August.

“Everyone there — even some of my family, my daughters — the desire that could have been there in that kiss is exactly the same that could have been as giving a kiss to one of my daughters. No more, no less,” the embattled president said.

“It (the kiss) was spontaneous, mutual, euphoric and with consent. Which is the key. This is the key to all of the criticism, of all of the campaign which has been mounted in this country: that it was without consent. No. It was with consent.”

Hermoso has disputed Rubiales’s version of events, insisting no conversation took place before the Spanish soccer boss grabbed her by the head and planted a kiss on her lips.  

“I want to clarify that, as was seen in the images, at no time did I consent to the kiss he gave me and, of course, in no case did I seek to lift the president,” the 33-year-old former Barcelona star said in a statement signed by more than 50 Spanish players.

“I do not tolerate that my word is questioned and much less that words that I have not said are invented.”

In spite of the president maintaining that he is innocent of any wrongdoing, global soccer’s governing body — Fifa — has suspended Rubiales from any soccer-related activities. 

The suspension is for three months, pending an extensive investigation into the 46-year-old’s conduct. Though it remains to be seen whether the president will still be around in the next few weeks. 

For his part, Rubiales has said he will defend himself vehemently and use Fifa’s probe towards his conduct to prove his innocence once and for all.

Jenni Hermoso of Spain raises the Women’s World Cup trophy with her teammates after beating England in Sydney. (Photo: James Whitehead/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)

Mounting pressure

Nevertheless, the calls for his resignation are growing louder by the day. With players’ union FutPro also adding their voice, in addition to the protests that have taken place in Madrid, as well as criticism from the European country’s government officials.

FutPro shared that it hoped this event would result in the Spanish players being taken seriously through the inception of “real changes, both sporting and structural,” in order to ensure that the team continues to grow.    

“It fills us with sadness that such an unacceptable event is managing to tarnish the greatest sporting success of Spanish women’s football,” read the FutPro statement.

The 23 players that were part of the World Cup-winning campaign have also vowed not to play for the country, as long as Rubiales remains at the helm. Their declaration was followed by the resignation of the national team’s World Cup-winning backroom staff. With only head coach Jorge Vilda staying put.

Of course, Vilda and Rubiales have a very close relationship. In the lead-up to the World Cup, 15 Spanish team players quit the national team.

They cited an unhealthy atmosphere in the locker room, concerns about team selection, and training sessions as some of the reasons for their actions. At the centre of this unhappiness was coach Vilda.

The Spanish soccer federation and Rubiales backed Vilda over the players. The 42-year-old Spaniard then repaid the faith of his bosses by handing the country its second senior soccer World Cup, after the men’s success 13 years ago.

In spite of this success, throughout the Australia and New Zealand World Cup, there was a clear chasm between him and some of the players in the team.

And even though Vilda was one of the people to clap for the beleaguered Spanish soccer president Rubiales as he delivered his impassioned monologue citing his innocence last week Friday, the coach has also since come out to criticise the sequence of events.     

“The events that have taken place since Spain won the Women’s World Cup for the first time in its history have been a real nonsense and have generated an unprecedented situation. Tarnishing a deserved triumph of our players and our country,” Vilda said in a statement.

With Vilda also turning his back on the man that defended him when he was close to walking the plank a year ago, as well as regional soccer presidents in Spain joining the calls that the president steps down, it seems only Rubiales’s family is batting for him.

The mother of Rubiales has reportedly locked herself inside a church and announced a hunger strike in protest at his “inhumane treatment” following the unfortunate incident with Hermoso.

This is not the first controversial incident to shock the Spanish soccer sphere. In 2021, a documentary where players of the women’s national team detailed abuse at the hands of former coach Ignacio Quereda, was released.

The players revealed that under the 27-year-long stewardship of the team by Quereda, they had endured sexual coercion, homophobia, and intimidating behaviour from the coach before his departure in 2015.

Former president of Haiti’s soccer federation, Yves Jean-Bart has also been in and out of court for the last three years, over allegations of sexual abuse while he was still at the helm of Haitian soccer. DM