MADRID — Suspended Spanish soccer federation president Luis Rubiales has resigned from his publish after kissing a participant on the lips with out her consent in a scandal which overshadowed Spain profitable the Women’s World Cup for the primary time.
Rubiales introduced his resignation Sunday in a message posted on X, previously often called Twitter.
“After my swift suspension by FIFA, and the rest of the cases building against me, it is clear that I cannot return to the post,” Rubiales mentioned in his assertion.
Rubiales kissed Jenni Hermoso through the awards ceremony after Spain beat England to win the title on Aug. 20 in Sydney, Australia.
Spanish state prosecutors accused Rubiales of sexual assault and coercion after the undesirable kiss, the nation’s prosecutors’ workplace mentioned Friday, two days after Hermoso formally accused him of sexual assault.
He had already been suspended from his job by FIFA for his conduct on the closing and, after soccer’s world physique opened a disciplinary case, remained defiant and hostile towards Hermoso.
Rubiales mentioned he additionally resigned as UEFA vp.
Rubiales mentioned that he had informed interim Spanish federation president Pedro Rocha – who changed him when Rubiales was suspended on Aug. 26 — of his resignation late Sunday evening.
Rubiales, 46, is a former participant and head of Spain’s essential gamers union. He had run the federation since 2018.
Also Sunday, Rubiales mentioned “I am going to (resign), I cannot continue my work,” in reply to a query from TV host Piers Morgan on Britain’s TalkTV. Clips from the present have been launched Sunday.
Two weeks in the past, Rubiales had been anticipated to step down amid the speedy wave of criticism for his conduct on the closing, which included a lewd gesture of grabbing his crotch. Instead, in a defiant Aug. 25 speech earlier than his federation’s basic meeting, he refused to go quietly and claimed he was sufferer of a “witch hunt” by “false feminists.”
That led FIFA to provisionally droop him simply sooner or later later; the Spanish authorities beginning a movement to have him dominated unfit to carry his workplace; and Hermoso’s accusation of sexual assault.
Rubiales’ habits at considered one of soccer’s premier world occasions had drawn scorn from Spain’s politicians, its soccer leagues, golf equipment, gamers and followers. His solely public supporters – aside from his mom, who held a short-lived starvation strike in a church in southern Spain – quickly deserted him. Those included the coaches of Spain’s girls’s and males’s groups. His personal federation additionally publicly requested him to step down.
After Spain’s state prosecutors opened the door to him going through felony costs – and even doable jail time if convicted – Rubiales lastly agreed to resign.
“Insisting in waiting and hanging on would not contribute anything positive (for) either the federation or Spanish soccer, among other reasons, because the powers that be would stop me from returning (to my job),” Rubiales mentioned in his assertion.
The Rubiales scandal has drawn consideration away from the best victory in Spanish girls’s soccer and, sarcastically, the most important win in Spanish soccer total since he took cost.
After Rubiales accused Hermoso of mendacity about what he mentioned was a kiss she had consented to, Spain’s girls world champions, together with dozens of gamers, refused to play once more for his or her nation till there have been adjustments within the federation’s management. The firing of the unpopular girls’s crew coach was not sufficient by itself for them to come back again.
Rubiales may even resign as a vp at UEFA, the European soccer physique which pays him 250,000 euros ($268,000) yearly in a job he was appointed to in 2019. He first needed to be elected onto UEFA’s govt committee by European soccer federations. UEFA has taken no motion towards Rubiales, even after FIFA opened a disciplinary case 18 days in the past.
An election to interchange Rubiales on the UEFA ruling committee will be held in Madrid subsequent February when the Spanish federation hosts the subsequent annual assembly of UEFA member federations.
Rubiales additionally mentioned Sunday he didn’t need to deliver instability to Spain’s bid to stage the 2030 World Cup in a co-hosting plan with Portugal, Morocco and probably Ukraine. The bid is strongly favored to win the internet hosting rights in a marketing campaign that FIFA desires determined by late in 2024.
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