FIFA suspends Spanish top hat for kissing world champion player – 08/26/2023 – Sport

FIFA announced this Saturday morning (26) that it has decided to provisionally suspend the president of the RFEF (Royal Spanish Football Federation), Luis Rubiales, from all activities related to football, at national and international levels.

“This suspension, effective as of today, will have an initial duration of 90 days, pending the results of the disciplinary proceedings opened against Mr. Rubiales on Thursday (24th),” says the official statement published on the website of football’s highest body. International.

The note also says that the head of FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee, the Colombian Jorge Ivan Palacio, determined two other directives, in which he orders Rubiales and the Spanish federation not to come into contact with the player Jennifer Hermoso or anyone around her. The decision, says Fifa, was communicated to the RFEF, to Rubiales and to Uefa, (Union of European Football Federations), of which Spain is a member and which has Rubiales as vice-president.

According to the Reuters news agency, the RFEF, through a spokesman, said it “respects all FIFA pronouncements”. The federation published an official note, in which it confirms that it was notified of Rubiales’ suspension during the disciplinary procedure. In his place will be the deputy vice-president, Pedro Rocha Junco, on an interim basis.

The statement from the federation also says that Rubiales says that he “will defend himself legally in the competent bodies, he fully trusts FIFA’s instances” and that he will take advantage of the removal to “start his defense so that the truth prevails and his complete innocence is demonstrated”.

Uefa did not manifest itself until the last update of this text.

The suspension comes on the heels of a week of criticism and controversy for Rubiales. Last Sunday (20), after the Spanish national team won the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand over England, 1-0, the manager was filmed holding Hermoso’s head and kissing him on the mouth during delivery of the medals.

Since then, the midfielder has stated that she did not consent to the kiss and that she did not like what happened. “I was simply disrespected,” she said in a statement published on Friday (25). Through her union, Futpro, the player will seek legal action against the top hat.

Rubiales, for his part, says that the kiss was consensual. In a speech at an extraordinary assembly of the RFEF, he stated that Hermoso was the one who initiated the physical contact by lifting him off the ground by his hips. He said that he asked the athlete if he could give her “a little kiss” and that she would have replied “ok”.

Despite being pressured by criticism from the Spanish government, other national and international football officials and players, Rubiales said on Friday that he would not resign. “A consensual kiss is going to get me out of here? I’m not going to resign. I’m going to fight until the end,” Rubiales said, earning applause from the predominantly male audience at the assembly.

In response, around 80 players from Spain, including the 23 world champions, released a statement on Friday in which they said they “will no longer accept a call-up to the national team” without changes in the RFEF leadership.

The Spanish government itself also announced measures against Rubiales. On Friday, the Secretary of State for Sport, Víctor Francos, announced the presentation of “a substantiated complaint to the TAD (Administrative Court of Sport) for it to assess” whether “what was committed constitutes a very serious fault”.

This Saturday, the Minister of Sports, Miquel Iceta, said in an interview with the newspaper El País that, if the TAD accepts the Executive’s complaint, “we will proceed immediately to suspend the functions of president of the federation”.

“The Government will not remain impassive in the face of what we consider an unacceptable attitude that undermines the rights of female soccer players and that tarnishes the image of our sport at national and international level”, added Iceta.

Spain announces ‘lawsuits’ against Hermoso

The RFEF called Hermoso’s latest accusations against Rubiales “lies” and announced “lawsuits”.

“The RFEF and the president will demonstrate each one of the lies spread, either by someone on behalf of the player or, as the case may be, by the player herself”, said the agency in a statement released in the early hours of Friday to Saturday, after the Spanish said he felt “victim of aggression” because of Rubiales’ kiss on the mouth.

The RFEF indicated that it will initiate “the corresponding legal actions” to defend the version of its president, who refused to resign on Friday, and who considered that it was a “consented” gesture.

Hermoso, 33, assured on Friday afternoon that he felt “vulnerable and a victim of aggression” when he received a kiss from Rubiales, after having stated that the kiss “was not consensual”.

A few hours earlier, Hermoso had assured, in a first statement from his Futpro union, that “at no time” had he consented to that kiss, dismantling Luis Rubiales’ defense.

In its communiqué, the federation cites that of Futpro, in which Hermoso states: “In no case did I seek to lift the president”. Rubiales had said in his speech that the player initiated contact between the two, lifting him off the ground by his hip.

The RFEF accompanied its statement with four photos to defend its version that it was the player who took the president off the ground, and not the other way around.

“The president’s feet are clearly and manifestly lifted off the ground as a result of the forceful action exerted by the player”, explains the RFEF.

The federation has also responded to the international players, who on Friday announced their refusal to return to play with the national team under the current leadership of the RFEF.

In its statement, the RFEF recalls that “participation in the selection is an obligation for all members of the federation, if they are called upon to do so”.

This case, the so-called “#MeToo of Spanish football”, provoked an avalanche of criticism against Luis Rubiales in the political and sporting world.