“This behavior is unacceptable. His apologies are neither sufficient nor appropriate.” Spain’s current Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wanted to withdraw from his meeting with King Felipe VI report on the formation of the government, but was then asked about Luis Rubiales, the head of the Spanish Football Federation, who forced a kiss on the mouth from a player in the world-winning team on Sunday. “He has to take further steps,” said Sánchez, while Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz pointed the way: she demanded Rubiales’ resignation.
The whole country continues to do the balancing act of not overlooking the sporting success of the criticism of Rubiales and his kiss of a player against her will. Sánchez also said: “Let’s not forget the success of the world champions. We have great athletes. Football and all women’s sport has a great future that we as a government want to support.”
“Sexual violence”: actually clearly regulated in the association
In the Spanish daily press, alongside reports about the enthusiasm at the players’ motorcade two days after the success, there are further comments on Rubiales. He besmirched “the heroic deeds of the world champions,” wrote the conservative daily El Mundo. Rubiales understands neither the importance of success nor the responsibility that comes with the office.
The editor of “El País”, Isabel Valdés, who specializes in equality issues, also underlined that it was Rubiales himself who had shifted the focus away from the historic victory to himself. She saw behind the affair the old belief that a woman and thus her body belonged to the man. Just thinking that Rubiales could kiss a player on the mouth without any consequences would be a sign “of a lack of culture of mutual understanding in the behavior of the sexes towards one another,” according to “El País”.
“La Vanguardia” quoted a report from the Spanish Football Association on Tuesday. There, the descriptions of possible cases of sexual violence include: “pulling someone towards you in a hug with an attempt to kiss” and “kissing against your will”. “Such behavior is unacceptable,” the association document continues, “and leads to immediate consequences.”
In order to understand why so much Spanish media is taking the case across the otherwise deep ideological divides so seriously, one has to know how intensively the whole of society in Spain negotiates issues of equality and feminism, on a much broader level than in many others European countries. The consequences are also a whole series of laws against violence against women, for equality in politics and business or a recently reformed sexual criminal law, the center of which is mutual consent, the so-called yes-means-yes law.
A comment by Hans-Günter Kellner, Madrid Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 46 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 17 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 49
It is difficult to say whether Rubiales will remain at the helm of the football association despite increasing social pressure. Only the national associations could depose him. “Who actually keeps him in office?” wrote “El Mundo”, “a question we’ve been asking ourselves for too long.”
