Faced with the lukewarmness of Barça’s first statement, which generated various criticisms, the president of the Blaugrana club, Joan Laporta, came out ahead of the match against Villarreal to label Luis Rubiales’ behavior as “unacceptable, improper and regrettable, and even embarrassing”, in addition to showing his “unconditional support” for Jenni Hermoso.
“I reiterate what we said in the statement. I reiterate the fact that Rubiales’ behavior is unacceptable, improper and regrettable, and I would even say shameful. In no case have we wanted to excuse him. We give unconditional support to the players. Jenni Hermoso, we are with you”, explained the Barcelona leader in the Movistar microphone.
From Barça they believed that the president of the Federation “was going to resign” in the assembly because “he had no other choice.” “I want to state, on behalf of Barça, that we respect FIFA’s decision to provisionally disable him,” added Laporta, who wanted to make “strong, forceful and unconditional” the condemnation of any act of sexist violence “clear”.
“We condemn all abuse and harassment of women. And we give unconditional support to the victims,” ??insisted the Blaugrana president, in addition to remarking “the commitment to women’s football and to equality between men and women” that the Barcelona entity has always defended .
“And we will also continue with the commitment to denounce acts that go against our principles and statutes,” Laporta concluded before lamenting that “some did not interpret that way” Barça’s first statement.
In the previous message from the club, they did not ask for Rubiales’ resignation and described the conduct of the federation president as “totally improper and unfortunate”, but they also stated that “the explanations given by the president of the Federation have been sufficient for the members present of the assembly”.
