The disciplinary commission of the International Football Federation (FIFA) has suspended Luis Rubiales for three years from holding any position or activity related to football for the non-consensual kiss he planted on the player Jennifer Hermoso during the celebrations of the won Women’s World Cup. for Spain in Sydney, as well as for the obscene gestures in the authorities’ box in the presence of Queen Letizia and Infanta Sofía. The subsequent pressure that the player received from the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) through statements and federation employees have also influenced the harsh sanction imposed by the FIFA disciplinary bodies, which have applied article 13 of their code, which refers to offensive conduct. Rubiales would have violated two points of the aforementioned article, that of “violating the rules of civic conduct” and that of “adopting conduct that discredits football and FIFA.” Rubiales may appeal to the agency’s appeal committee. If his allegations are not successful, he may ultimately go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport of Lausanne (CAS). If the CAS does not remove the sanction either, according to the new electoral order that regulates elections in sports federations, Rubiales will never be able to run in an election to once again preside over Spanish football after receiving a firm sentence from a sports court.
In the early afternoon, Rubiales issued a statement in which he charged against FIFA. “The procedure has been characterized by issuing decisions without the basis for them, which in practical terms has prevented me from filing an appeal immediately, which in turn means that, as of today, I have been 66 of the 90 days suspended without even having a full hearing to defend myself,” Rubiales wrote.
FIFA DECISION:
I will go to the last resort so that justice is done and the truth shines ????
Due to the many efforts of some politicians, media and institutions, the disproportion and injustice committed is becoming increasingly clearer✅
PEOPLE, VERY MAJORITY, ARE CLEAR ABOUT IT pic.twitter.com/3z7hKMDw2R— Luis Rubiales (@LuisRubiales17) October 30, 2023
The Granada leader, who resigned on September 10 from both his federation position and that of UEFA vice president, had already been provisionally suspended for a period of three months by FIFA. This first sanction included two guidelines that prevented Rubiales, the federation and its directors or employees from contacting Jenni Hermoso or her closest environment in order to avoid pressure and coercion for the Spanish international to admit that the kiss was consensual. For this reason, Rubiales is accused, in addition to sexual assault, in the case opened in the National Court. The federation’s sports director, Albert Luque, and marketing director, Rubén Rivera, are also accused of this same crime.
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Rubiales’s attempt to explain the kiss during the histrionic assembly on August 25, in which he presented himself as a victim of Hermoso’s effusiveness and assured that she picked him up and said “okay” after asking him “a bit?”, led to the immediate provisional sanction from FIFA. And the player’s response: “I feel obliged to denounce that the words of Mr. Luis Rubiales explaining the unfortunate incident are categorically false and part of the manipulative culture that he himself has generated. I clarify that at no time did the conversation to which Rubiales referred take place and that, far from it, his kiss was consensual,” Hermoso denied in a statement hours after the controversial meeting.
The investigating judge, Colombian Jorge Iván Palacio, a renowned activist in his country for the rights of women and LGTBI groups, imposed the provisional punishment just two days after opening a file on Rubiales. FIFA’s disciplinary processes usually take longer, but the sexist speech of the resigned boss of Spanish football in the assembly – he even declared that “false Spanish feminism is a scourge” – as well as the statement in which he attacked Hermoso After the denial of this, it was the beginning of the end of his career as a national and international leader for having caused, according to Palacio, “irreparable damage to the integrity and reputation of football with his attitude.”
TAD is missing
The FIFA sanction is not the only one to which Rubiales was exposed. The one imposed by the Sports Administrative Court (TAD) is still pending. This body, which prevented the Government from first provisionally suspending and then disqualifying him by considering only the non-consensual kiss of Jennifer Hermoso as serious, has not yet ruled on the matter, to the irritation of the Higher Sports Council.
The TAD can sanction Rubiales between one month and two years at most. However, the Spanish sports court is under suspicion because one of its members, Jaime Caravaca, is the nephew of Ramón Caravaca, partner of the firm directed by Tomás González Cueto, external federation legal advisor. He still continues to work for the federation, despite being the great bastion of Rubialism.
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2023-10-30 11:18:42
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