Royal Spanish Football Association (RFEF) president Luis Rubiales remains at the centre of a resignation row amid mounting pressure due to his behaviour in the aftermath of Spain's victory over England in the 2023 Women's World Cup final.
Despite Rubiales' stance, he has been provisionally suspended by FIFA, with an interim president appointed.
Jorge Vilda's side triumphed 1-0 in the final thanks to Olga Carmona's first-half strike, with Mary Earps' penalty save from Jenni Hermoso after the break not proving costly.
During the medal presentation ceremony, after embracing several players and members of backroom staff, Rubiales grabbed Hermoso by the head and planted a kiss on her lips — an act the former Atletico Madrid forward said afterwards she "didn't like”.
Spain's Minister of Equality Irene Montero condemned Rubiales' act as a "form of sexual violence", with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez describing it as "unacceptable".
La Liga F and global players union FIFPro are among the prominent football organisations to call for the 46-year-old to step down or be removed from his post with the Spain women's squad confirming their plan to boycott matches until he does.
Rubiales was also seen grabbing his crotch in celebration shortly after the final whistle and the widespread and ongoing condemnation of his antics have generated worldwide attention as part of an escalating crisis in Spanish football
MORE: Women's FIFA World rankings: Latest list after Spain top England in World Cup final
Is Luis Rubiales resigning?
Despite widespread reports that he would stand down, Rubiales sensationally confirmed on August 25 that he intended to remain in place, and decried "fake feminism, that is a "scourge in this country".
Those comments were applauded by Vilda and Spain men's coach Luis de la Fuente, among others in the auditorium, before an astonishing tirade continued. Rubiales alleged a "witchhunt" from politicians and the media and said of Hermoso: "It was her who lifted me up and brought me closer into her body. I asked her 'a little bit' and she responded 'that's okay'."
💣💣💣 Rubiales suelta el bombazo:
— MARCA (@marca) August 25, 2023
🇪🇸 "No voy a dimitir" pic.twitter.com/xLEghSDRvP
FIFA's move to suspend Rubiales has meant a change in his role, with Pedro Rocha stepping in as interim president, after initially being ready to replace him permanently.
While the RFEF has thus far backed Rubiales to the teeth, the federation experienced a shift in strategy on August 28. Following a meeting of all the federation's regional presidents, they issued a joint statement calling for Rubiales to resign, and the federation to conduct a "profound and immediate restructuring" of its own hierarchy.
This indicates an overall lack of support for Rubiales amongst the federation as a whole, as opposed to the defiance shown previously from his support base at the top of the RFEF structure.
Luis Rubiales resignation controversy: FIFA, public prosecutor investigations
The row shows little sign of dying down, with Rubiales sticking to his position, as the wider ramifications continue to increase.
Despite their show of public faith, Vilda and de la Fuente have both publicly denounced Rubiales' actions, with the entirety of Vilda's coaching staff resigning in protest.
FIFA's investigation into the saga is ongoing, with Spanish public prosecutors confirming they have opened a preliminary investigation into Rubiales' behaviour, due to the context of 'the sexual act not being consented'.
Rubiales, and his remaining supporters, have continued to claim his innocence and intention to legal defend himself, with claims of excessive interference from the Spanish Government, after they requested the Spain's Sports Tribunal (TAD) to also suspend him.
RFEF secretary general Andreu Camps also requested UEFA suspend all Spanish club and national teams from UEFA competitions, under the angle of too much state involvement within UEFA statutes, but UEFA have rejected his claim.
In the latest bizarre twist, Rubiales' mother Angeles Bejar, has now locked herself in a church in protest in his hometown Motril,
🚨 Esta imagen se acaba de producir en Motril.
— El Chiringuito TV (@elchiringuitotv) August 28, 2023
⛪️ Han entrado a la iglesia médicos y policías.#JUGONES pic.twitter.com/mBwWlJhJcv
She claims there is a 'inhuman hunt; against her son, insisting she will remain in situ on hunger strike, for 'as long as needed'.
Rubiales' cousin Vanessa Ruiz, has also released a statement, adding that he is being 'judged before his time'.
Vanessa Ruiz, prima de Rubiales:
— Relevo (@relevo) August 28, 2023
🗨 "Quien pase 5 minutos con Luis sabe que es una bellísima persona, con muy buen corazón".
🗨 "Si esta mujer (Jenni Hermoso) se sentía acosada desde el primer momento, que hubiese ido donde tenía que ir, no haber cambiado la versión 3 veces". pic.twitter.com/puBstKTgr1
Spain Women refuse to play
Following Rubiales' decision not to resign, the Spanish women’s football team released a joint statement confirming they will not play any matches until the federation leadership is changed.
All 23 players from the World Cup squad signed the statement, along with 56 other female football players.
Hermoso also took to social media to reject Rubiales' claims about her consenting to the kiss, rubbishing the conversation he alleged took place, alongside an indication that she has been pressured to publicly justify his actions.
"I want to clarify that, as was seen in the images, at no time did I consent to the kiss he gave me," Hermoso said. "I do not tolerate my word being questioned and much less the invention of words I have not said."
Spain's next match is set for September 22 against Sweden in the Nations League.
Official Announcement. August 25th,2023. pic.twitter.com/lQb18IGsk2
— Jenn1 Hermos0 (@Jennihermoso) August 25, 2023
Was Luis Rubiales a football player?
Rubiales spent the bulk of his playing career with clubs in Spain's Segunda Division, twice winning promotion with Levante in 2004 and 2006 despite the club being in financial turmoil.
The defender closed out his playing days with a brief stint at Scottish club Hamilton Academical, announcing an abrupt retirement after a 4-1 defeat to Rangers at Ibrox in August 2009.
Rubiales was aged just 32 and had a contract for the whole season but part of his motivation to return to Spain were calls for him to mount a bid to take charge of the country's players union, the AFE, amid growing money problems for clubs outside the elite.
He was elected AFE president in March 2010, beginning a career in sports administration that ultimately led him to succeed the long-serving Angel Maria Villar at the helm of the RFEF in May 2018.
Rubiales' time with the AFE did not attract too much attention outside Spain until the past week when, amid the fallout from the Hermoso incident, Tamara Ramos — now director of the Futbolistas ON players union — accused him of misogynistic behaviour when they worked together, including asking what colour her underwear was.
Ramos' allegations were strongly refuted in an RFEF statement — just one part of the firefighting effort around an increasingly engulfed Rubiales.
The RFEF announced they are sue-ing Former Spanish players’ association employee Tamara Ramos who accused Luis Rubiales of inappropriate behaviour towards her that happened years back.
— SHE scores bangers (@SHEscoresbanger) August 25, 2023
“I have endured humiliation” she recalled.
RFEF deny allegations.pic.twitter.com/nsrxKC7S2g
Luis Rubiales former controversies: Lopetegui, Tebas and Pique
Weeks after taking charge at the RFEF, Rubiales was plunged into a footballing crisis.
On the eve of the 2018 World Cup, Spain head coach Julen Lopetegui agreed to take charge of Real Madrid from the start of the 2018/19 season.
Rubiales was only informed five minutes before Madrid's announcement and, following a meeting with the coach the next day, Lopetegui was sacked. "I tried to act with honesty, according to our ethics," Lopetegui later told the Guardian. Under caretaker boss Fernando Hierro, Spain were knockout out on penalties in the Round of 16 by hosts Russia.
The sense that the new RFEF chief would not be pushed around by the big powers in La Liga was confirmed as his next public fight soon arrived with Spain's top-flight supremo Javier Tebas.
Rubiales heavily criticised Tebas' unilateral decision to enter into an agreement with the Relevent Sports agency that committed La Liga to explore the possibility of staging a match in the United States.
Indignation directed towards Tebas from Rubiales perhaps might have carried more weight had the RFEF not taken that year's Supercopa de Espana to Morocco and since staged it as an expanded four-team tournament in Saudi Arabia.
Predictably, Rubiales also name-checked Tebas in his tour de force of non-resignation hubris, and the latter responded with a diatribe on social media. It is a relationship beyond repair.
The Supercopa link-up with Saudi further damaged the relationship between the two men and his reputation as a whole before his World Cup final actions appeared certain to bring him down.
Rubiales was forced to deny a conflict of interests existed between the RFEF and former Barcelona defender Gerard Pique over the hosting agreement for the Supercopa to remain in Saudi Arabia from 2019 to 2029.
Hacked audio recordings of conversations between Pique and Rubiales revealed the former Spain star's company Kosmos received a €24 million commission for acting as an intermediary between the RFEF and Saudi state-owned sports marketing group Sela in the Supercopa negotiations.
In Rubiales' response to the allegations, stating Kosmos was paid by Sela and not the federation, he offered an indication of the dramatically strident display with regards to the Hermoso affair.
"I trust the police and I hope they can catch the mafia that have done this," he said. "I am upset that they [media] are prioritising the false news that I'm hearing rather than the robbery of private information taken from my phone.
"I've been at the helm of the RFEF for four years. I haven't stopped being attacked since I decided to run for president. There is a campaign to discredit me. If they can do this, I cannot guarantee that one day they will [not] put a bag of cocaine in the boot of my car. I don't deserve this, neither does my family."
MORE: Spain women's World Cup 2023 squad and why some players staged a boycott
What did Luis Rubiales say about Jenni Hermoso?
It would be generous to describe the RFEF's immediate post-World Cup final attempts at damage control as haphazard.
In an initial statement, the federation quoted Hermoso as saying: "It was a totally spontaneous mutual gesture because of the immense joy that winning a World Cup brings." It was subsequently indicated these words did not come from Hermoso, who issued her own statement via the FUTPRO union.
"My union, FUTPRO, in coordination with my agency, TMJ, are taking care of defending my interests and being the interlocutors on this matter," it read.
FUTPRO added that it would work to "sanction and adopt measures to protect the players against actions we believe are unacceptable" and described Rubiales' behaviour as "acts that should never go unpunished".
Rubiales told Spanish broadcaster COPE that the controversy had been whipped up regarding "a kiss between two friends celebrating something" and insisted anyone insinuating anything more significant were "idiots and stupid people".
In a subsequent statement, he said: "I made a mistake, for sure. I have to accept it. In a moment of such emotion, without any bad intention or bad faith, what happened, happened, in a very spontaneous way. [There was] no bad faith from either side."
If that placed a mask wonkily in place, it has now slipped off and shattered into hundreds of pieces on the floor.
"I'm not going to resign, I'm not going to resign, I'm NOT going to resign, I'm NOT going to resign, I'm not going to resign," he repeated to applause, bizarrely recalling Leonardo Di Caprio's famous scene from the Wolf of Wall Street.
"And I'll tell you more: I've received a lot of pressure as well, not just you. A lot of comments have come to me. They've told me that the best thing would be to resign because if not, probably on Monday it would occur to someone to kick me out of the forum, find the formula.
"But we're in a country where the law rules, where there has to be a motive to take you out of some place. And I say: what is it I've done? A consensual peck is enough to get me out of here?"
Rubiales claimed he would take legal action against members of the government, who are unlikely to dally over their next move given this extraordinary turn of events. The Spanish High Council for Sports (CSD) has received complaints about the RFEF president this week.
Rubiales then referred to Hermoso's "silence" and "a statement that I don't quite understand" before stating he was the victim of "a social assassination".
Me sangran los oídos 🎪🎭
— David de Gea (@D_DeGea) August 25, 2023
The situation has generate criticism from across football with David de Gea posting on X "My ears are bleeding" while his former rival for Spain's goalkeeping spot Iker Casillas decried a "total embarrassment" on social media. Hermoso's teammate Alexia Putellas, the double Ballon d'Or winner, pledged her support to Hermoso on social media and added: "This is unacceptable. It's over."
Tebas was predictably swift to respond with his own statement. "Although the crude victimisation trick has worked too many times, this time to continue trying it is simply ridiculous," it read.
"It is simply impossible to attribute his misogynistic and despicable behaviour to any absurd conspiracy when the reputational damage for all of Spanish football is inevitable."
"What we have seen today in the federation assembly is unacceptable," said Spain's deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Diaz in a social media statement.
"The government must act and take urgent measures: impunity for macho actions is over. Rubiales cannot continue in office."
pic.twitter.com/A53yq6ml0c — Leah Williamson (@leahcwilliamson) August 25, 2023
In a long and ill-judged response to FUTPRO's statement, the RFEF said it would take "appropriate legal actions" to defend Rubiales, adding that its "competent bodies" working on the "complaints" had achieved no success in contacting Hermoso.
"The president of the RFEF has wanted to handle this issue with the utmost respect for the players and the institutions and only when an unacceptable red line has been crossed has he come out publicly to give his version of events," it said, bafflingly producing a series of photos from the trophy presentation as evidence for its case.
The pictures were used to allege that Hermoso had grabbed Rubiales from behind, using "forceful action" while, it claimed, the president continued to hold on to her "in order not to fall".
"Mr. President's feet are ostensibly raised off the ground as a result of the player's action," it added. "The evidence is conclusive. The president has not lied.
"The RFEF and the president will prove every single lie that is spread either by someone on behalf of the player or, if it is the case, by the player herself.
"The RFEF and the president, given the seriousness of the content of the press release of the Futpro Union, will initiate the corresponding legal actions.
"The RFEF regrets that after such an extraordinary sporting success as the one that took place... it cannot be celebrated as the situation and the success deserves due to completely non-sporting causes.
"In any case, and as could not be otherwise, the RFEF respect, as they have always respected, the decisions of the players who wish to participate or not with the Spanish national team in international matches, although it is clear that participation in the national team is an obligation of all federated persons if they are called upon to do so."
Barcelona manager Xavi addressed the situation on August 26, offering his "unconditional support for Jenni and players in the women’s game" and calling Rubiales' behaviour "totally unacceptable." The FIFA World Cup and two-time UEFA EURO winner said he felt sadness that the situation had detracted from Spain's latest glory.
🗣 Xavi: ❝I want to give my unconditional support to Jennifer Hermoso and the players. I condemn the behaviour of the president of the Spanish Football Federation. And I regret that people aren't talking about the historic achievement of winning the World Cup.❞ pic.twitter.com/sdLUMQ1Hpd — FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) August 26, 2023
Luis Rubiales FIFA suspension
The FIFA Disciplinary Committee announced on August 26 it had provisionally suspended Rubiales from all football-related activities for 90 days, pending disciplinary proceedings.
Rubiales was also ordered not to attempt to contact Hermoso directly or through others, which the committee deemed necessary to preserve her "fundamental rights" and "the good order of the disciplinary proceedings."
The committee said it had informed Rubiales, the RFEF and UEFA of the decision.
"Luis Rubiales has stated that he will legally defend himself in the competent bodies," it said, via translation. "He fully trusts FIFA and reiterates that, in this way, he is given the opportunity to begin his defence so that the truth prevails and his complete innocence is proven."