Criticism of Luis Rubiales begins to come from all fronts. This time it was Megan Rapinoe in an interview with The Atlantic who harshly reproached her for the embarrassing images that she left in the celebration of the World Cup won by Spain. “Sexist” and “misogynist” were part of the adjectives with which she described the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation.
The scandal is such that the journalist Franklin Foer, given the opportunity to speak with a double world champion and Olympic gold medalist on the brink of retirement, decided to start the interview with the subject of Spain. After a couple of questions about the final, he questioned the soccer player about her opinion of what he called “One of the most embarrassing moments I’ve seen in sport.”
Rapinoe was blunt. “It made me think about everything we have to endure. Think about everything that Spanish team had to go through, some players who raised their voices a long time ago, since last year (to protest the bad treatment of their coach and the Federation) and that they’re still not on the team. Maybe that motivated them, but you shouldn’t have to go through that.”
But the criticism only increased and she herself decided to comment on Rubiales’ scene in the box at the end of the game. “There was another scene that demonstrates the deep level of misogyny and sexism in that Federation and in that man (Luis Rubiales) when after the final whistle grabbing his crotch. What kind of world do we live in? On the biggest stage, in which you should celebrating, Jenni gets physically assaulted by this guy,” Rapinoe said.
Rubiales’ position hangs by an increasingly fine thread while the eyes of the planet begin to turn towards Spain. And not only that, opinions are already beating from all sides the uncomfortable images lived in the midst of what should have been exclusively the celebration of a historic day for Spain.
The only salvageable thing, on this occasion, was the praise received by Rapinoe herself after being questioned by the “exceptional” Spanish team (in the words of the journalist). “Many of these footballers play together all the time. Most of them play for Barcelona and they play the same style. So there is a very deep philosophy,” replied the North American.
I wish the only questions that surrounded the World Cup obtained would have focused on soccer, on the merit of the soccer players and on the extraordinary feat achieved by the 23 players. Unfortunately, the most likely thing is that you will continue to hear criticism of a Rubiales who has an almost impossible challenge: to get rid of this scandal.
