Spain is world champion, the dream came true after defeating none other than England in the final. The absolute already has her star on her chest after a long-suffering victory against the almighty “lioness”. However, beyond a historic achievement, all the comments on the radio, websites and social networks have taken over the attitude of the president of the Federation, Luis Rubiales.
The kiss on the mouth that the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Luis Rubiales, gave the player Jenni Hermoso at the World Cup medal ceremony The Spanish team went viral on social networks immediately, it has gone around the world and all the foreign media echo it.
His attitude in the box also crosses any red line of decorum in Sports. The Spanish soccer leader was quite a spectacle without noticing that he was with the FIFA authorities and what is most embarrassing: with Queen Letizia and Infanta Sofía. Due to the euphoria of the moment, he effusively celebrated the title with gestures, shouts, raising his arms… But the most criticized has been the obscene gesture of putting his hand to his crotch to celebrate the victory with those who were below. An intolerable attitude that has been overshadowed by his “spike” to Jenni.
And it is that a kiss is capable of cutting off the head of a president. A kiss like the one Luis Rubiales gave Jenni Hermoso when the Spanish player went up to collect her medal as world champion. A macho aggression that has been disapproved even by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez and that is already being investigated by the CSD.
The president of the Federation has been forced to convene an Extraordinary Assembly but no one trusts him to resign or make him resign. Rubiales is a survivor and is used to getting out of any battle unscathed. In fact His mandate is dotted with controversies ranging from espionage or corruption to orgies with public money.
The other scandals of Rubiales
The medal controversy
It is not the first time that accusations of machismo have hit the RFEF. Luis Rubiales has been accused of contemptuous behavior towards women for a long time. In the last women’s Super Cup, won by Barça, he was in evidence by not giving the medals to the champions and, instead, leaving them on a table where the soccer players went to pick them up on their own feet. In addition, Rubiales has also been one of the sources of criticism from the 15, the group of players who asked not to be called up to the Spanish team until there were no real changes in the team, the coach, Jorge Vilda, will be fired and achieve an effective professionalization of women’s football.
The Super Cup, the audios and the “cocaine”
One of the difficult moments for the RFEF president was when conversations that the RFEF president had had with Gerard Piqué, a Barcelona Football Club player, came to light in 2019, where they talked about the transfer of the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia. The contract with Saudi Arabia, dated September 11, 2019, is valid for six years and “guaranteeed the Federation an income of 40 million euros tax-free per season, a figure that triggered the variable salary that Rubiales receives for presiding over that body. In addition, the company of the Barcelona Football Club player pocketed a commission of 24 million euros.
Rubiales was accused of diverting money from the RFEFbut did not resign. Instead, he starred in a surreal press conference where he even signed that he hoped “not to appear with a shot in a ditch.” “I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, but I can’t guarantee that tomorrow Don’t let me put a bag of cocaine in the trunk”he added.
The orgy scandal
The president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) was denounced before the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office by his own uncle and former Chief of Staff, Juan Rubiales, for an alleged diversion of federation money to pay for various orgies with friends in the Granada town of Salobreña, as revealed exclusively by the newspaper “El Mundo”.
The president would have celebrated this ‘event’ in a chalet justifying some “working days” that finally “were not such.” In his complaint before the Justice, Juan Rubiales assures that his nephew did not hold any kind of meeting related to his professional activity, but instead held these orgies with between eight and ten young women “solely for the enjoyment of him and his most direct team.” , among whom would be his friend, the ex-soccer player Nene, “paying the expenses with company cards of the RFEF itself.”
The Federation categorically denied the facts and assured that it was one more episode of the “infamous campaign” suffered by Luis Rubiales.
Spying and clandestine recordings
The audio series uncovered by El Confidencial uncovered some alleged clandestine recordings that Rubiales himself carried out to ministers and officials of the Government of Pedro Sánchez. Rubiales would have been recording for the last four years compromising conversations with different members of the Executive of PSOE and Unidas Podemos. The sound file of the president of the RFEF dates back to at least May 2018, when he took office to replace Ángel María Villar, and extends to the present.
The audios -always according to this newspaper- are related to matters of maximum interest to Rubiales, such as the legal conflict he had to get re-elected as head of the RFEF, his war with LaLiga over the First Division schedules, the dispute with the president of the union of the Association of Spanish Soccer Players (AFE), David Aganzo, and the celebration of the Super Cup of Spain in Saudi Arabia. In addition, El Confidencial assures that Rubiales would also have in his possession recordings on topics of a sensitive nature for Sánchez, which were never made public.
But the spy movie doesn’t end there. Rubiales was also accused of “monitoring” the AFE. According to the complaint filed by Juan Rubiales, the president decided to “go against David Aganzo, president of the AFE (Association of Spanish Soccer Players), for which He did not hesitate to hire a detective agency to follow up and find out who he meets with, who he talks to, who supports him… The payment for these surveillance services was carried out through a company belonging to the lawyer Ramón Caravaca, which is the one that pays the company that carries out the surveillance. According to him, these services were subsequently charged to the RFEF.
Amnesty International’s complaints
The scandal unleashed by the agreement between the Spanish Football Federation and Gerard Piqué’s company to bring the Super Cup to Saudi Arabia went beyond commissions or conflicts of interest. And it is that from Amnesty International they denounced that the situation of women in the Arab country is far from the description of Luis Rubiales. “They should feel proud that a Women’s League has been created thanks to the RFEF. It was an exemplary agreement. Before there weren’t even toilets for women in Saudi soccer fields and now, thanks to us, they enter on an equal footing”he blurted out to the press after the leak of audios by the confidential.
Some words that caused great outrage among activists who have spent years fighting for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia and described their comments as “disrespectful” and “shocking nonsense.” One of the organizations most indignant with the “image laundering” of the Federation was Amnesty International, which also accused Rubiales of lying about the steps taken by the organization itself, which has spent years trying to be heard by the Federation.
The president of the Federation affirmed that he was aware of his proposals by the press and even accused the organization of disloyalty for not using official channels, but the truth is that he ignored up to five letters since 2019.
Until now, the president of the Spanish Football Federation seemed shielded from any accusation, listening or denunciationbut, a single kiss can open the exit door wide for you.
