Fifa suspends Spain’s football federation chief Rubiales over star player kiss

MADRID – World governing body Fifa suspended Mr Luis Rubiales as president of Spain’s football federation on Saturday for kissing Spanish Women’s World Cup player Jenni Hermoso on the lips, and banned him from making contact with her.

“(We) decided today to provisionally suspend Mr Luis Rubiales from all football-related activities at national and international levels,” the organisation said in a statement, explaining that it will last 90 days, pending its disciplinary proceedings.

This came after the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) said earlier in the day that it will take legal action to defend Mr Rubiales even as he faces a storm of criticism and mutiny for

grabbing star player Hermoso’s head and kissing her on the lips

after Spain’s Women’s World Cup victory.

In a statement, the federation said it will show there have been lies about what happened by Ms Hermoso or people speaking for her. The statement on its website said it will take legal action to defend Mr Rubiales’ honour.

The RFEF said it will expose the lies that have been spread, “whether in the name of the player, if that is the case, or by the player herself” after Ms Hermoso said she did not consent to the kiss and felt she was “vulnerable and the victim of an aggression”. 

Mr Rubiales, 46, refused on Friday to resign as RFEF chief over his actions last Sunday in Sydney, seeking to defend his behaviour and calling the kiss “spontaneous, mutual, euphoric and consensual”.

Ms Hermoso has won the support of the Spanish government, which cannot fire Mr Rubiales but has strongly denounced his actions and is moving to get him suspended using a legal procedure before a sports tribunal.

The Spain women’s team have also mutinied. In a joint statement sent via their Futpro union on Friday evening, all 23 of the Cup-winning squad, including Ms Hermoso, as well as 32 other squad members, said they will not play international matches while Mr Rubiales remains head of the federation.

In the same statement, Ms Hermoso denied Mr Rubiales’ contention that the kiss he gave her was consensual. “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,” she said.

“I won’t tolerate having my word doubted, much less have people inventing things that I didn’t say,” she added.

In its statement early on Saturday, the federation said: “The RFEF and the president, given the seriousness of the content of the press release from the Futpro union, will initiate the corresponding legal actions.”

It added: “Where there is rule of law... opinions are counteracted with facts and evidence, and lies are rebutted in court.”

The statement was accompanied by four photos of the event last Sunday that it said illustrated Mr Rubiales’ contention that Ms Hermoso lifted him by the hips.

The RFEF added that “playing for the national team is an obligation on any member of the federation called upon to do so”, and threatened to sue the players who signed the letter refusing to play for the national team.

Mr Rubiales had been widely expected to resign at an emergency meeting of the federation on Friday. Instead, he said repeatedly that he will not quit, and complained that “false feminists” are “trying to kill me”.

“Is a consensual peck going to take me out of here? I won’t resign. I will fight until the end,” he said, drawing applause from the predominantly male audience.

At the Cup final last Sunday, Mr Rubiales was also seen grabbing his crotch in celebration while standing next to Spain’s Queen Letizia in a box at the stadium, for which he apologised on Friday.

Spanish Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz called his speech “unacceptable”. She wrote on social media: “The government must act and take urgent measures: Impunity for macho actions is over. Rubiales cannot continue in office.”

The president of Spain’s top-tier men’s football league La Liga, Mr Javier Tebas, wrote on the X platform: “Many people, until now, did not understand what the members of the football community have to live with dealing with (Rubiales) as president of the RFEF. The misogynistic gestures, the profane expressions, the protocol disaster and the insults of this latest global embarrassment are not a surprise.”

Gender issues have become a prominent topic in Spain in recent years. Tens of thousands of women have taken part in street marches protesting against sexual abuse and violence.

The Socialist-led coalition government has presided over legal reforms including equal pay, abortion, sex work and transgender rights.

Mr Rubiales’ comments and the supportive reaction he received from many in the audience at the federation meeting on Friday were widely scorned on social media.

England, the losing World Cup finalists, said: “We all stand with you, @jennihermoso and all players of the Spanish team.” REUTERS