Moment that mattered: Luis Rubiales forces a kiss on Jenni Hermoso

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - AUGUST 20: President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation Luis Rubiales (R) kisses Jennifer Hermoso of Spain (L) during the medal ceremony of FIFA Women's World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 Final match between Spain and England at Stadium Australia on August 20, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Noemi Llamas/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)

President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation Luis Rubiales kisses Jenni Hermoso of Spain during the medal ceremony of the Fifa Women’s World Cup, 20th August 2023

“I saw it and I just thought: Wow, that’s really not okay,” says Verónica Boquete. “My heart sank.” On 20th August 2023, Boquete – an attacking midfielder for Italian Serie A club Fiorentina and a former Spain national team captain – had been commentating on Spain’s 1-0 victory over England in the Women’s World Cup final. Some 20 million people from the two countries tuned in to watch the Spanish women’s team win the trophy for the first time in its history. The Spanish team had overcome behind-the-scenes turmoil to outplay their English opponents, who couldn’t handle the intensity of their  ‘tiki-taka’ football, with its emphasis on short passes and intelligent movement. It should have been a momentous occasion for the Spanish players. But the celebrations quickly turned sour.

At the medal presentation and trophy-lifting ceremony Luis Rubiales, president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), gripped the head of one of Spain’s star players, Jenni Hermoso, and forcibly planted a kiss on her lips. After the ceremony, in video live-streamed on social media from the players’ dressing room, Hermoso could be heard telling her teammates: “I didn’t like it. [But] what can I do?” Just moments later, Rubiales entered the dressing room and invited the team on an all-expenses paid trip to Ibiza, joking that he would marry Hermoso there.

The kiss, broadcast live to millions of viewers, sparked outrage and headlines across the globe. “We should have been talking about football, saying how great the Spanish team played and congratulating them for becoming the world champions,” says Boquete. “Instead, everyone was talking about Rubiales. In my opinion, Rubiales stole this moment from them.”

But instead of apologising, Rubiales doubled down. In a radio interview he described those criticising his actions as “losers” and “dickheads”. Then later in a speech to the RFEF, Rubiales claimed that the kiss was “consensual” and that he was a victim of “social assassination” and a “witch-hunt” by the media and “fake feminists”. Jabbing his finger in the air, Rubiales shouted into the microphone: “Let me tell you something: I will not resign. I will not resign. I will not resign.” His words were greeted with applause. Shortly after, Rubiales’s mother, Ángeles Béjar, locked herself in a church and began a hunger strike to protest the treatment of her son: three days later it ended after she was taken to hospital.

In a statement published on social media, Hermoso said that the unwanted kiss had left her feeling “vulnerable and like the victim of an assault” and described it as “an impulsive, macho act, out-of-place and with no type of consent.” The RFEF accused Hermoso of telling “lies” about the incident and said that it would “take as many legal actions as necessary to defend the honour of the president.”

Boquete, who represented Spain on 62 occasions, was horrified but not surprised by the scandal. “This behaviour is not something new. It’s not a one-off. It’s just that this time all the world’s media was following the situation,” she says. In 2015, Boquete led a player rebellion against then-national team coach Ignacio Quereda, who had run the Spanish women’s squad for 27 years. Among the players’ complaints were poor management and lack of resources. The Spanish women’s team had three stopovers on the way to the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada and had to play their first game while still jet lagged – they were knocked out in the first stage of the tournament, finishing bottom of their group after taking just one point. The entire 23-member squad called for Quereda’s dismissal in a statement. “We believe an era has come to an end and we need a change,” it read.

In the documentary Romper el Silencio (Breaking the Silence), which aired on Spanish television in 2021, the full scale of problems were revealed. Multiple players spoke about the culture of fear, misogyny, and bigotry under Quereda’s leadership. Among the accusations levelled at the coach were that he humiliated players by pulling their ears, smacking their buttocks and calling them fat. He was also, players said, homophobic. Boquete told the documentary-makers that “Quereda saw homosexuality as a sickness, and he was vocal about his views.” Quereda has denied being abusive.

Under pressure from the players’ revolt, Quereda resigned from his position in July 2015. But Boquete believes she paid a heavy price for speaking out against him. Quereda was replaced by Jorge Vilda. Boquete, alongside others who had protested his predecessor’s behaviour, wasn’t selected to play for Spain again. “I stopped playing in the national team at the height of my career,” she says. “I missed two World Cups. I missed two European Championships. Professionally, I missed out on a lot because of this. But if I think about the collective, if I think about the situation of my sport and my values and principles, then, for sure, I have zero regrets”.

In September 2022, there was another protest, this time against Vilda. Ahead of the national squad announcement, 15 of Spain’s top female players, known as ‘Las 15’, said they would boycott the team unless changes in the management were made. The RFEF dismissed their complaints, saying that it was: “not going to allow the footballers to keep questioning the role of our national manager and his backroom staff. We are not going to submit to any sort of pressure.” Several ‘Las 15’ players were excluded from the national team.

“These situations, the responses to them, show us that the people in charge don’t really care about women’s football, that they don’t see us as real football players or professionals. They don’t think that we deserve the same standards and respect as our colleagues in the men’s national team,” Boquete says. Part of the problem, she believes, is Spain’s deep-rooted culture of machismo, reinforced under the fascist Franco dictatorship, when strict gender roles were enforced. The women’s national team was only founded in 1980, five years after Franco’s death. “We were told it [playing sport] wasn’t good for our bodies. Women should stay home and take care of the kids. This is just 40 years ago, that’s not so very long,” says Boquete.

“This machismo, this sexism in Spanish culture, it comes from the past but it’s still in our present. People who are adults today grew up with these sexist beliefs. We need to educate people about gender equality, so the next generation can think differently.” Boquete believes that there has already been some progress in Spain. “Women’s football isn’t the same now as it was in 2015,” she says, “and I hope it won’t be the same as it is now by 2030.”

But the issues laid bare by the Rubiales case go far beyond Spanish football. “It’s a problem all around the world,” says Boquete. “Some countries are a little better, some a little worse, but women are dealing with this everywhere. Of course the kiss has had a huge impact and huge exposure in the media because it happened at a high-profile event. But sexism is not just a football problem. It’s happening in every country, in every industry, in supermarkets, bars, in companies every day.”

“Sexism is not just a football problem. It’s happening in every country, in every industry… every day”

“I’m 100 percent sure that if you take 100 women from different walks of life, all of them will tell you in one way or another: ‘Yeah, I’m dealing with this situation too.’ It’s my hope that we can take this moment [the kiss] in our sport to highlight this problem [of sexism] not just in women’s football, but for all women, everywhere.”

In September 2023, Jorge Vilda was fired by the RFEF after 81 players, including all 23 from the World Cup-winning squad, said they would not play for the coach after he gave a standing ovation to Rubiales’ address to the Spanish federation. In the statement announcing Vilda’s sacking, the RFEF thanked him for his “impeccable sporting and personal conduct.” On 30th October 2023, Fifa announced that it was banning Rubiales from all football-related activities for three years because of events that occurred during the Women’s World Cup final. Rubiales has said that he intends to fight the ban.

“I can’t say if this punishment is correct or not, too much or too little. Should Rubiales be banned for life? I’m not the judge in these matters. But what I can say is that it [banning Rubiales and firing Vilda] is not enough to change things,” says Boquete. “The message must be clear. Fifa, football federations and clubs need to set a limit and say very clearly: ‘No we won’t allow sexism in the sport. No we won’t allow racism in the sport’. Big organisations have to lead the way, to set standards. But as I said, this is not just about football. At a broader level, we need the involvement of everyone. We need governments, schools, companies, organisations at every level to change.”

Posted on Wednesday, June 19th, 2024 - Categories: #52 - Jul-Sep 2023, App Issues.