Head of the Spanish Football Federation Luis Rubiales has been facing a series of backlash for kissing Jenni Hermoso after Spain won the Women’s World Cup.
After Spain’s 2023 Women’s World Cup triumph over England by a score of 1-0 on Sunday, August 20, Rubiales kissed Spain’s star Hermoso on the lips during the medals presentation ceremony.
After the incident, Hermoso wrote via an Instagram post, “I didn’t like it”. Contrary to that, the football authority in Spain issued a statement on behalf of the Spain’s all-time leading goalscorer to defend Rubiales.
In the statement, Hermoso reportedly said that the kiss was a display of a “natural gesture of affection”.
The 31-year-old forward was quoted saying: “It was a totally spontaneous mutual gesture because of the immense joy that winning a World Cup brings”.
In a contrary reaction to the incident, a government representative in Spain, Irene Montero, who is Spain’s minister for equal rights, said “It’s a form of sexual violence that women experience daily.”
Montero claimed that it has traditionally been “invisible” and that “we can’t normalize” it, adding that “we shouldn’t believe that uninvited kissing was commonplace”.
Also, Rubiales’ actions were heavily criticized on social media, with ‘dimision ya’ – ‘resign now’ in English – trending on X, formerly known as Twitter, in Spain.
On his part, Rubiales told Spanish broadcaster COPE that it was “a kiss between two friends celebrating something” and those who saw it differently are “idiots and stupid people”.
He added, “Let’s ignore them and enjoy the good things”.
Spanish newspaper El Pais ran the headline “Jenni didn’t like Rubiales’ kiss, neither did we”.
