The scandal continues to surround the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and its president, Luis Rubiales, until recently. The recently resigned for the non-consensual kiss with Jennifer Hermoso during the Women’s World Cup celebration and for his obscene gestures in the stands, pressured, together with his father, a press officer of the Federation to lie and testify that Hermoso gave his consent to the dissemination of statements that exonerated him. This is what El Confidencial has advanced and La Vanguardia has been able to confirm.
Hermoso, according to the statement prepared by the RFEF on August 20, had assured during the return flight to Spain that the kiss had been “a totally spontaneous mutual gesture due to the immense joy that comes from winning a World Cup.” “The president and I have a great relationship, his behavior with all of us has been 10 and it was a natural gesture of affection and gratitude. A gesture of friendship and gratitude cannot be given any more thought, we have won a World Cup and we are not going to deviate from what is important,” the RFEF told EFE and Europa Press in a statement putting these words in the player’s mouth.
Nothing is further from reality. Jennifer Hermoso herself issued a statement in which she denied having uttered those words, accused the RFEF of “manipulation” to save the institution’s head and publicly denounced the lack of consent to the kiss that Rubiales gave her.
The affected press officer, Patricia Pérez, known as Poki, is part of the team removed at the last minute from the routines of the national team players in a measure promoted by the RFEF.
As La Vanguardia has learned, her team, which accompanied the players on trips and stays during the concentrations, will no longer travel with them. The decision was made known to both the affected people and the players themselves when they got on the bus at the concentration hotel in Madrid, when the Federation ordered the communication team to travel in different vehicles and stay in separate hotels.
This measure, supposedly promoted to protect the players, does not respond to the demands of the players, who requested, among the five points communicated in their letter last Friday, changes in the presidential cabinet and general secretary; the communication and marketing area; the integrity direction; as well as the restructuring of the women’s football organization chart and the resignation of the president of the RFEF, Luis Rubiales – the only point fulfilled so far.
The five points were demanded by the players from the Federation to restore normality and to feel “in a safe place, where women are respected, there is a commitment to women’s football and where we can give our maximum performance.”
