Defiant Spanish Soccer President Won’t Quit Despite World Cup Scandal

Rubiales has been under fire for kissing a female soccer player on the lips following the country’s World Cup title.

Following reports which indicated the president of Spain’s football federation, Luis Rubiales, would resign following his infamous kiss of player Jenni Hermoso at the World Cup victory ceremony, a defiant Rubiales is denying he will step down. Meanwhile, FIFA has opened a case against Rubiales.

“Do you think this [incident] is so serious that I should go, after the best management in the history of Spanish football?” Rubiales asked reporters Friday. “Let me tell you: I’m not going to resign. I’m not going to resign. I’m not going to resign. I’ve come under a lot of pressure.

“Perhaps somebody will look to remove me on Monday. But we live in a country of laws. Is a consensual kiss enough to remove me? I’m going to fight this until the end. I hope the law is followed, and that as there’s no reason to [remove me], it won’t happen.”

Hermoso acknowledged the kiss in the aftermath of the ceremony and implied it was nonconsensual.

“But what do I do? I didn’t like it, eh,” Hermoso said in the locker room after Sunday’s game.

Later Sunday, she offered a measured explanation in a radio interview.

“It was because of the emotion of the moment, there’s nothing more there,” Hermoso said on the radio program El Tiempo de Juego, via CNN. “It’s just going to be an anecdote [of the time]. I’m absolutely sure it won’t be blown up more.”

But it has, with multiple figures in the Spanish government calling for Rubiales to resign from his post.

This isn’t the first scandal that Rubiales has been embroiled in since he was hired as the president of the Spanish football federation in 2018. The Spanish women’s national team has been under the microscope even before this incident, as 15 players from the team openly condemned working conditions under coach Jorge Vilda in ’22. Only three of those 15 players went on to make the World Cup roster.