Spanish football President, Luis Rubiales, who planted an unsolicited kiss on the lips of Jenni Hermoso during the celebration of Spain’s triumph at the Women’s World Cup has quickly followed his pledge to resign with his resignation.
“Today, I notified the interim president at 930 pm, Mr. Pedro Rocha, that I have resigned as President of RFEF,” Rubiales said in a post on X as Twitter. “I have also let him know that I have also resigned my position in UEFA so that my Vice-presidency position can be filled.”
He had pledged some minutes before that he was going to step down.
“To insist on waiting around,” he continued, “and holding onto that won’t contribute anything positive, neither to the Federation nor to Spanish football. Among other things, because the powers that be will prevent my return.”
The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) confirmed that Rubiales had presented his resignation as chief of the Spanish football association as well as vice president of UEFA.
“The Royal Spanish Football Federation confirms that Luis M. Rubiales Béjar has presented his resignation tonight,” RFEF said in a statement. “This has been made known to the federative entity through a letter to Pedro Rocha Junco. In addition, he also resigns from his position as vice president of UEFA.”
The federation’s board of directors will now call an election to find a a successor.
Rubiales called the public outrage “excessive persecution.” and was tenacious in his positions as not guilty and a president of the Spanish FA.
“I have faith in the truth and I will do everything when it’s in my hands so that it prevails,” he wrote. “My daughters, my family and the people that love me have suffered the effects of an excessive persecution, as well as many falsehoods, but it’s also true that in the street, every day more, the truth is being imposed.”
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Rubiales had said after the incident that it was a mutual kiss, an assertion Hermoso categorically denied. Right after the World Cup trophy presentation, Hermoso had said in a video streamed on social media after the kiss that Sunday that “I didn’t like it, but what can I do?” Yet Rubiales insisted it was consensual and it was Hermoso who asked for it; Later presenting videos that the footballer attempted to lift him. He threatened a lawsuit against the footballer for mud slinging. His desperate attempt to continue in power, prevented an official apology from the FA head honcho. Insisting he was never at fault in the act.
It was when FIFA stepped in, and suspended him (Luis Rubiales) that his way to continuity in office looked very bleak. The added voices of some members of his own professional circle and the Spanish Prime Minister, made the way forward in office for him as clear as mud.
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“I did not like this incident,” Hermoso wrote in a statement about the kiss on X. “I felt vulnerable and a victim of an impulse-driven, sexist out of place act without any consent on my part.”
The federation came out with two statements defending Rubiales, one of which has since been deleted, threatening legal action against Hermoso and accusing her of spreading “lies”
Rubiales initially refused to stand down over the incident, repeating that he “I will not resign” several times in an what was about a 30 minute speech at the federations general assembly during which he also spoke of “unjust” “campaigns” and “fake feminism”
However, his position became increasingly indefensible, even though he attracted support from the federation, as players resigned and he was covered in a sortie of criticisms from the sporting world and Spanish politicians.
All 23 members of Spain’s World Cup-winning squad, including Hermoso, and nearly 50 other professional female soccer players said they would not play for the national team again until Rubiales was dragged out of office. The national team’s next fixture is on September 22.
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