Ministers criticize top hat for kissing player after World Cup – 08/21/2023 – Sport

The president of the Spanish football federation was criticized by government ministers for kissing player Jenni Hermoso on the lips during celebrations of the unprecedented title in the Women’s World Cup.

In a video posted on Instagram and YouTube by the newspaper El Mundo and other media outlets, Hermoso is seen telling her teammates in the locker room that she “didn’t like it”.

The kiss took place as Luis Rubiales, the president of the Spanish Football Federation, handed out gold medals to the team following their 1-0 win over England on Sunday.

Hermoso downplayed the incident in a statement sent by the federation to Spanish news agency EFE.

“It was a mutual gesture that was completely spontaneous, motivated by the immense joy of winning a World Cup,” reads the statement. “The ‘presi’ and I have a great relationship, his behavior towards all of us has always been a 10 and this was a natural gesture of affection and gratitude.”

Asked again about the incident at Spain’s COPE radio station, she said: “I wish they would create [controvérsia] involving someone else, I’m a world champion and that’s what matters.”

Rubiales, for his part, denounced those raising issues as “idiots”.

“The kiss with Jenni? There are idiots everywhere. When two people have a moment of affection that doesn’t mean anything anymore, you can’t hear idiots. We are the champions, that’s it,” he said, according to Radio Brand.

However, ministers and parts of the media were angered by the gesture.

The Interim Minister of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta, said on Monday on RNE radio that the kiss was unacceptable and asked Rubiales to provide an explanation and apologize.

A non-consensual kiss is “a form of sexual violence that all women suffer on a daily basis, which until now was invisible and which we cannot normalize”, said the Minister of Gender Equality, Irene Montero, on the social network X, formerly known as Twitter .

Acting Social Rights Minister Ione Belarra, who belongs to Montero’s party, asked: “If they do this with all of Spain watching, what can they do in private?”

A column in Spain’s bestselling El Pais newspaper on Monday morning (21) was headlined: “Jenni didn’t like the kiss and neither did we” – describing it as “an intrusion, an invasion of privacy, an aggression”.

Gender issues are a powerful topic in Spain. The Socialist-led government has presided over a series of legal reforms related to gender reassignment, abortion and sex work, but a loophole in its law on sexual consent has allowed rapists to be released from prison, resulting in a significant electoral loss for the extreme party. -left Podemos, which is part of the government coalition, in the July elections.