BARCELONA, Spain — One week after the president of the Spanish soccer federation kissed a participant through the Women’s World Cup awards ceremony, his repute is in tatters and he’s out of his job.
Luis Rubiales, whose management of Spanish soccer had already been marked by successes tinged with scandal, wrecked his profession by offending hundreds of thousands worldwide together with his conduct on the ultimate in Sydney, Australia, when he additionally grabbed his crotch in a victory gesture.
“Rubiales cannot run Spanish soccer again,” Spanish minister María Jesús Montero mentioned Sunday, a day after he was provisionally suspended by FIFA for 90 days.
“We had enough of him when he marred the great triumph of women’s soccer with his intolerable attitude.”
FIFA moved in opposition to Rubiales after he refused to step down and defiantly instructed an emergency meeting of his federation on Friday that he was the sufferer of a “witch hunt” by “false feminists.”
On a day that can go down as one of many ugliest in Spanish soccer, Rubiales mentioned that ahead Jenni Hermoso had consented to the “mutual” kiss. Hermoso replied in two statements to say that was false and that she thought-about herself the sufferer of an abuse of energy. She additionally accused the federation of attempting to stress her into supporting Rubiales. The federation hit again by saying she was mendacity and that it will take authorized motion in opposition to her.
PHOTOS: One week after sullying the Women’s World Cup, Luis Rubiales is now a Spanish soccer outcast
As a part of his suspension of Rubiales, FIFA disciplinary decide Jorge Palacio ordered Rubiales and the federation to not contact Hermoso.
Spain’s authorities can also be pursuing his everlasting removing in Spain’s Administrative Court for Sports. The court docket will meet subsequent week to contemplate the federal government’s lawsuit for an alleged abuse of energy and for allegedly committing acts that tarnished the dignity and decorum of a sporting occasion. If discovered responsible, Rubiales could possibly be dominated unfit to carry workplace.
Spain nice Andrés Iniesta, a 2010 World Cup winner, mentioned “after what has occurred this week I wish to categorical my unhappiness, as an individual, as a father of three ladies, as a husband and as a soccer participant.
“We have had to bear this president who clung to power, didn’t admit that his behavior had been unacceptable and was damaging the image of our country and our soccer before the world,” Iniesta mentioned on X, previously often called Twitter.
Rubiales was changed by his vice chairman Pedro Rocha, who will act as interim chief in his absence. Rocha is taken into account to be a confidant of Rubiales.
On Sunday, Rocha referred to as an emergency assembly of the regional federation chiefs to debate the disaster.
Rubiales’ habits has tarnished not solely the best feat of Spanish ladies’s soccer, it has additionally torn aside his federation.
The solely public assist Rubiales has obtained got here throughout Friday’s common meeting when he was applauded a number of occasions by components of the largely male crowd, which was made up of regional federation officers, coaches, referees and gamers from decrease divisions.
But his refusal to go quietly led to some resignations from his board, together with the vice chairman accountable for ladies’s soccer.
Those who applauded his diatribe included ladies’s coach Jorge Vilda – Hermoso’s coach – and Spain’s males’s coach Luis de la Fuente. But as soon as FIFA took down Rubiales, it took solely hours for each coaches to challenge statements sanctioning their all of a sudden former boss.
Rubiales is a 46-year-old former participant who headed a gamers’ union – which this week joined the refrain demanding his resignation – earlier than he was elected to run the federation in 2018. He has not shied away from controversy since, however has shored up inside assist by boosting revenues.
Rubiales made 339,000 euros ($365,000) in 2021 after taxes, for presiding over the federation with a price range of 382 million euros ($412 million). The federation runs Spain’s males’s and girls’s nationwide soccer groups and its semi-professional and newbie soccer leagues. It additionally organizes the referees. The authorities maintains some oversight of the entity however it can not identify or take away its executives.
Weeks after changing into probably the most highly effective man in Spanish soccer, Rubiales confirmed he wouldn’t tolerate any act that he thought-about disloyal when he fired the coach of Spain’s males’s workforce simply two days earlier than its first match on the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Julen Lopetegui had simply agreed to hitch Real Madrid after the event, however Rubiales felt he had betrayed the nationwide workforce and sacked him.
Rubiales revolutionized the Spanish Super Cup in 2019 by increasing it from two to 4 groups and taking it to Saudi Arabia – now the large draw for high European expertise like Cristiano Ronaldo – in change for 40 million {dollars} a 12 months. The golf equipment and federation liked the money, however the transfer was criticized by ladies’s and human rights teams for the regime’s remedy of girls and minorities. Spanish authorities additionally scrutinized the deal, and an investigative decide is probing the legality of the Super Cup contracts that apparently included cash going to then Barcelona participant Gerard Piqué.
In half, Rubiales was tolerated as a result of he was thought-about higher than his predecessor, Ángel Maria Villar, who was in energy for practically three a long time earlier than he ended up behind bars for widespread corruption.
Rubiales elevated his maintain on energy by changing into a vice-president with UEFA, which has remained silent on the scandal. Rubiales was spearheadeding what promised to be his biggest prize: a joint bid to host the 2030 males’s World Cup with Portugal, Morocco and probably Ukraine.
But it appears the best sporting achievement of Spanish soccer underneath his watch has led to his downfall – until he can efficiently struggle in opposition to each FIFA and Spain’s authorities.
Not solely have been his actions deemed out of line, his erratic dealing with of the scandal – which swerved from insulting his critics, to a clumsy apology, and ultimately his tirade in opposition to feminism – did him in.
The response from Spanish society has been overwhelmingly supportive of Hermoso and in opposition to Rubiales.
Her Spain teammates, together with greater than 50 others ladies gamers, mentioned they’d not play for Spain so long as he stays.
Messages in assist of the participant and condemning Rubiales have poured in from Spanish and international gamers, probably the most highly effective soccer golf equipment – Real Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, Athletic Bilbao, Valencia, amongst others – and from political events from the far left to the middle proper.
“Luis Rubiales is finished,” the president of Spain’s ladies’s league, Beatriz Álvarez, instructed The Associated Press. “He has dug his own grave with his acts and his words.”
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