Luis Rubiales on Sunday resigned from his position as president of the Spanish soccer federation following weeks of fierce criticism over his unwanted kiss with Women\u2019s World Cup winner Jennifer Hermoso. <\/p>\n
\u201cToday, I notified the interim president at 930 pm, Mr. Pedro Rocha, that I have resigned as President of RFEF,\u201d Rubiales said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. \u201cI have also let him know that I have also resigned my position in UEFA so that my Vice-presidency position can be filled.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cTo insist on waiting around,\u201d he continued, \u201cand holding onto that won\u2019t contribute anything positive, neither to the Federation nor to Spanish football. Among other things, because the powers that be will prevent my return.\u201d <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Royal Spanish Football Federation confirms that Luis M. Rubiales B\u00e9jar has presented his resignation tonight,\u201d RFEF said in a statement. \u201cThis 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.\u201d <\/p>\n
The federation\u2019s board of directors will now call an election to find a a successor. <\/p>\n
Rubiales vowed to clear his name against what he called \u201cexcessive persecution.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI have faith in the truth and I will do everything when it\u2019s in my hands so that it prevails,\u201d he wrote. \u201cMy daughters, my family and the people that love me have suffered the effects of an excessive persecution, as well as many falsehoods, but it\u2019s also true that in the street, every day more, the truth is being imposed.\u201d <\/p>\n
Rubiales\u2019 unwanted kiss on Hermoso after the Spanish team\u2019s victory in the Women\u2019s World Cup final on August 20 sparked condemnation in Spain and across the world. The 46-year-old previously apologized and described the kiss as \u201cmutual\u201d \u2013 a claim Hermoso denied, saying she did not consent and was not respected. <\/p>\n
The Spaniard was provisionally suspended by global governing body FIFA for 90 days while a disciplinary investigation takes place. Pedro Rocha stepped into the role in the interim. <\/p>\n
The scandal involving Rubiales triggered a crisis in Spanish soccer, with the government pushing for Rubiales to resign and RFEF last week removing World Cup-winning manager Jorge Vilda from his role. Vilda had been filmed seeming to inappropriately touch a female staff member during the Women\u2019s World Cup Final. He was replaced by Montse Tom\u00e9, the first woman in Spanish national team history to hold the position. <\/p>\n
Public outcry to the unwanted kiss and Rubiales\u2019 staunch defense of it has come from every sphere of Spanish society, including from politicians and sports stars. The incident also sparked a conversation about the prevalence of \u201cmacho culture\u201d in Spain, a county that has witnessed massive protests against sexual violence and sexism in the past years. <\/p>\n
The coaches of Spain\u2019s women\u2019s team resigned en masse and more than 80 Spanish soccer players put their name on a statement supporting Hermoso, saying they would not return to the national team \u201cif the current leaders continue\u201d in their posts. <\/p>\n
Rubiales also sparked ire for his insistence that the kiss was consensual, despite Hermoso\u2019s denials. \u201cI did not like this incident,\u201d Hermoso wrote in a statement about the kiss on X. \u201cI felt vulnerable and a victim of an impulse-driven, sexist out of place act without any consent on my part.\u201d <\/p>\n
The federation then released two statements defending him, one of which has since been deleted, threatening legal action against Hermoso and accusing her of spreading \u201clies.\u201d <\/p>\n
Rubiales initially refused to stand down over the incident, repeating that he \u201cwill not resign\u201d several times in an almost 30-minute speech at the federation\u2019s general assembly, during which he also spoke of \u201cunjust\u201d campaigns and \u201cfake feminism.\u201d <\/p>\n
However, his position became increasingly untenable, despite support from the federation, as players resigned and he was engulfed in a wave of criticism from the sporting world and Spanish politicians. <\/p>\n
All 23 members of Spain\u2019s 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 removed. The national team\u2019s next fixture is on September 22. <\/p>\n
As the row dragged on, several soccer teams, both male and female, displayed their support for Hermoso at their matches \u2013 some held shirts, some wore wristbands, and some unfurled banners. <\/p>\n
Pressure then mounted on Monday as all 19 regional presidents of Spain\u2019s soccer federation called for Rubiales to resign following an emergency meeting, hours after Spanish prosecutors announced that an investigation that could end in sexual aggression charges against Rubiales had been opened. <\/p>\n
On Friday, the Spanish national prosecutor filed a complaint against Rubiales \u201cfor the crimes of sexual assault and coercion against Jennifer Hermoso,\u201d according to a prosecutor\u2019s statement, after Hermoso filed an official complaint with prosecutors. <\/p>\n
The complaint from the prosecutor\u2019s office \u2013 part of the Spanish legal process \u2013 paves the way for Spain\u2019s national court to launch a formal investigation into Rubiales and begin gathering evidence, which could lead to possible charges. <\/p>\n
In protest against what she called an \u201cinhumane, bloodthirsty hunt\u201d against her son, Rubiales\u2019 mother, \u00c1ngeles B\u00e9jar, locked herself in a church on Monday and went on a hunger strike in the town of Motril near Grenada, according to media reports. <\/p>\n\n
Luis Rubiales on Sunday resigned from his position as president of the Spanish soccer federation following weeks of fierce criticism over his unwanted kiss with Women\u2019s World Cup winner Jennifer Hermoso. \u201cToday, I notified the interim president at 930 pm, Mr. Pedro Rocha, that I have resigned as President of RFEF,\u201d Rubiales said in a <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8204,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8203","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}