FIFA Suspends Spanish Soccer President Luis Rubiales After He Kisses Player on the Lips During World Cup

FIFA has suspended Spanish soccer president Luis Rubiales for 90 days after he gave soccer player Jennifer Hermoso an unsolicited kiss on the lips, the association announced on Saturday.

Rubiales, 46, has been the subject of backlash after he kissed the midfielder following Spain’s World Cup final win, and for grabbing at his crotch as the match ended. The furor only grew over the weekend after the president refused to resign from his position during an assembly meeting on Friday.

In a statement from FIFA, the association said Rubiales’s 90-day ban, effective as of Saturday, will bar him “from all football-related activities at national and international level.”

Additionally, Rubiales has been told “to refrain, through himself or third parties, from contacting or attempting to contact the professional player of the Spanish national football team Ms. Jennifer Hermoso or her close environment,” per FIFA’s statement.

Spanish Soccer President Luis Rubiales Refuses to Resign After Kissing Player on the Lips at World Cup

The association said the 90 days are an initial window, “pending the disciplinary proceedings opened against Mr. Luis Rubiales on Thursday, August 24,” in the update.

Luis Rubiales at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.

Catherine Ivill/Getty

“The FIFA Disciplinary Committee will not provide any further information on these disciplinary proceedings until a final decision has been taken,” the statement said, adding, “FIFA reiterates its absolute commitment to respect the integrity of all persons and therefore condemns with the utmost vigour any behaviour to the contrary.”

After Spain’s 1-0 win over England, Rubiales grabbed Hermoso by her face and kissed her on the lips.

Spain’s Women’s Soccer Team Refuses to Play Until President Resigns for World Cup Kiss

Despite multiple reports that he would confirm his resignation on Friday, Rubiales doubled down on his defense at an emergency assembly and refused to step down.

According to the New York Times, the federation’s president said he’d become a victim of “social assassination” and “false feminism” while addressing the incident on Friday.

Luis Rubiales gives a press conference at the Extraordinary General Assembly.

Europa Press via AP

Rubiales also insisted that the kiss with Hermoso, 33, was “mutual and with the consent of” the player, the Associated Press reported.

However, a report from the outlet immediately following the kiss said Hermoso was seen in an Instagram video telling teammates in the locker room that she “didn’t like it” after Spain’s World Cup victory.

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Hermoso issued her own statement on Friday after the assembly. “Simply put, I was not respected,” she wrote. “I felt vulnerable and a victim of an impulse-driven, sexist, out of place act without any consent on my part.”

World Champion Jenni Hermoso of the Women’s Spanish National Team.

AP Photo/John Cowpland

Hermoso said she’s been pressured to release “a joint statement” that “could justify” the president’s actions, and slammed the “controlling culture” she was facing, even as a world champion.

“Under no circumstances can it be my responsibility to bear the consequences of conveying something I do not believe in, which is why I have refused the pressures received,” she concluded.

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Source: HIS Education