UPDATE (September 5, 2023, 12:42 p.m. ET): Spanish women’s football coach Jorge Vilda was fired on Tuesday. two weeks after the team won the World Cup title. Vilda had initially supported the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, and opposed efforts to impeach him.
In a stunning move, FIFA, the morally destitute international body that oversees world football, has suspended The president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, leaves office while investigating his conduct after the Women’s World Cup Final. This emotional match ended with Spain beating England 1-0, but instead of marveling at the remarkable story of Spain’s rise, the subject that preoccupies fans of football is Rubiales’ non-consensual kissing (assault) of star player Jenni Hermoso after the game.
The scandal shook not only the world of sports in Spain, but also the entire country. On Monday, Spanish prosecutors opened a sexual assault investigation into Rubiales. This should be an unfettered moment of glory for the Spanish women’s national football team. Yet because of the sexist, condescending, disrespectful and downright disgusting male leadership in Spanish football, they have to deal with patriarchal nastiness instead.
The shameful reactions of Rubiales and the federation underline not only that these problems are not new in Spanish football, but also that the sexist rot runs very deep.
That FIFA took action is surprising, given its long history of Corruption, Sexism and general amorality. But the organization’s action was constrained by the repugnant responses of Rubiales and the federation. After social media and Spanish government ministers condemned the kiss, Rubiales offer cowardly apologies to “people who felt hurt” while the federation released a statement quoting Hermoso describing the kiss as “a natural gesture of affection and gratitude.” Media outlets quickly reported that Hermoso did not provide a quote. The federation had invented it.
At an emergency meeting of the Spanish federation on Friday, Rubiales said “I will not resign” four times in a row with the determination of Nikita Khrushchev at the United Nations, to the applause of an almost entirely male audience. It was an embarrassing display for both Rubiales and the entire federation. The shameful reactions of Rubiales and the federation underline not only that these problems are not new in Spanish football, but also that the sexist rot runs very deep. Rubiales has now been officially suspended from football for 90 days “pending a decision”. disciplinary procedure open” against him. In response, Rubiales is also he is now suing the women’s soccer union and says Hermoso “lies” about the consensual nature of the kiss.
This is a loathsome person who lives in a time, as we certainly see in American politics, where malignant misogyny can be met with standing ovations. Rubiales went from weak apologies last week to now I insist that the kiss was consensual. But Hermoso released his own statement: in which she unequivocally says“I feel compelled to state that the words used by Mr. Luis Rubiales to explain this unfortunate incident are categorically false and part of the manipulative culture he himself created.”
Hermoso is far from alone. Her 22 teammates and 58 other Spanish players, announced that they would no longer play for the national team if Rubiales did not withdraw. (Striker Borja Iglesias also left the men’s national team until Rubiales resigned.) Additionally, the Spanish women’s football federation, Spanish political leaders and a large number of journalists have all called for his resignation.
Despite this, he still benefits from the objective support of abusive, downright disrespected team coach, Jorge Vilda, that he just signed – amid all this tumult – to a new four-year contract. (In total, 11 members of Vilda’s coaching staff resigned in protest against Rubiales.) This is only understandable, especially when Vilda is investigation for his own post-match behavior, like a middle finger to the women who have bristled for years under his thumb.
A World Cup triumph should be a moment all about the team.
The situation quickly became more than a horrible moment broadcast around the world. This is a litmus test for which side you’re on: not only whether Rubiales should be fired, but also when it comes to the rights of female athletes everywhere. Like Meg Linehan of The Athletic wrote“Think of the explosive growth and increasing popularity of women’s football. Then think about where we would be without the outright ban on the game (in some countries women’s teams aren’t even fielded), misogyny and abuse.
In his Trumpian challenge to Rubiales, he is winning the support of the most backward and vengeful elements of Spanish society and beyond. Yet forces are also aligning against him. In addition to the above, Spanish basketball legend Pau Gasol and several of the team’s major sponsors support Hermoso. It’s quickly becoming a time when you can’t stand still on a moving train. Everyone in Spain is asked: whose side are you on?
A World Cup triumph should be a moment all about the team. That this team could perform as it did even with a abusive and misogynistic coach and a federation that disrespected and underfunded her every step of the way, should be the story. This must be the time to campaign for full equality for women’s sport in Spain. They are expected to experience a watershed moment as the nation roars its love, much like when the U.S. women’s team won equal pay with their male counterparts after winning the last World Cup. Instead, Spain’s players must defend their humanity even as athletes and as women. It is not fair. It’s wrong.
But at least the battle lines have been drawn and the fight, which has been brewing for decades in the world of Spanish women’s sports, has finally been joined. I don’t expect Rubiales to survive this. But if he emerges as some kind of folk hero, that will tell us how far we have to go, and not just in Spain. The real heroes – the ones who never asked for the title – are Hermoso, her teammates and everyone who looks at Rubiales – and Vilda – and says enough is enough.
