The triumph of the Spanish women’s soccer team in the World Cup has generated a wave of joy throughout the country. Instead, a strange gesture by Luis Rubiales, president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), has clouded the victory and has sown controversy.
After the game ended, Rubiales kissed player Jenni Hermoso on the mouth. The act took place during the World Cup medal ceremony and went viral on social networks in a matter of seconds. Shortly after, in a live broadcast, Hermoso was heard shouting that she “didn’t like her”.
“We’re not here for bullshit,” Rubiales said, answering the journalists while sharing that there was no need to focus on other things than celebrating the victory of the Spanish team in the World Cup.
In an interview with Juanma Castaño in El tertulion de los domingos, the player tried to downplay the action: “I didn’t even expect it, but it doesn’t matter to me. I’m a world champion and that’s what I’m going to take. I didn’t like it. I can only say that it was the moment, the fusion of the moment, and there is nothing beyond it”. In addition, due to the avalanche of criticism that the president has received in a matter of hours, the RFEF has shared a statement with the EFE agency in which Hermoso assures that it was “a totally spontaneous mutual gesture.”
Although the soccer player participated in the Castaño space to downplay the matter, the program began a debate about what had happened and the different collaborators gave their opinion.
”The president of the Spanish Football Federation is superior to Jenni Hermoso and has taken her face with both hands and kissed her on the mouth. That’s not that they’ve given a peak, it’s different”, Mónica Marchante stated openly. “It seems unpresentable to me”, sentenced Siro López. On the contrary, Manolo Lama wanted to minimize the importance of the case and joked: “I think that those who get angry is because they have never kissed them”.
The sports journalist laughed at the controversy from the outset and began joking: “I just met Casillas and the first thing I did was kiss him on the mouth thanks to what we did in the two Euro Cups and the World Cup he gave us. I hope you don’t get mad.” Some colleagues, far from feeling comfortable with the tone of the communicator, responded angrily. This is the case of Marchante, who replied to the man from Madrid that no one was going to get angry because he is not the “boss of Casillas.”
Lama’s intervention in the sports program has gone viral on platforms such as Twitter and Instagram and thousands of users on the network have criticized his rude and “misogynistic” behavior.
