Just every week following the incident the place the president of the Spanish soccer federation kissed a participant throughout the Women’s World Cup awards ceremony, his once-respected status was shattered, resulting in his departure from his place.
Luis Rubiales, whose management of Spanish soccer had already been marked by successes tinged with scandal, wrecked his profession by offending thousands and thousands worldwide together with his conduct on the closing in Sydney, Australia, when he additionally grabbed his crotch in a victory gesture.
“Rubiales cannot run Spanish football again,” Spanish Minister Maria Jesus Montero stated 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 football with his intolerable attitude.”
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. Rocha has referred to as an emergency assembly of the soccer federation’s regional heads to debate the disaster on Monday when ladies’s teams will rally in downtown Madrid in assist of ahead Jenni Hermoso, who was kissed on the lips by Rubiales after Spain’s 1-0 win over England within the closing.
FIFA moved in opposition to Rubiales after he refused to step down and defiantly advised an emergency meeting of his federation on Friday that he was the sufferer of a “witch hunt” by “false feminists.”
On a day that may go down as one of many ugliest in Spanish soccer, Rubiales stated that Hermoso had consented to the “mutual” kiss.
Hermoso replied in two statements to say that was false and that she thought of herself the sufferer of an abuse of energy.
She additionally accused the federation of making an attempt 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.
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 elimination in Spain’s Administrative Court for Sports.
The court docket will meet within the coming week to think about the federal government’s lawsuit for alleged abuse of energy and for allegedly committing acts that tarnished the dignity and decorum of a sporting occasion. If discovered responsible, Rubiales may very well be dominated unfit to carry workplace.
Spain nice Andres Iniesta, a 2010 World Cup winner, stated, “After what has occurred this week, I wish to categorical my disappointment 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 football before the world,” Iniesta stated on X, previously often known as Twitter.
Rubiales’ habits has tarnished not solely the best feat of Spanish ladies’s soccer but in addition torn aside his federation.
The solely public assist Rubiales has obtained got here throughout Friday’s normal meeting when he was applauded a number of instances by components of the principally 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 in command of ladies’s soccer. The federation may even preserve open its personal inner probe into the incident as a part of its sexual violence protocol.
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 situation statements sanctioning their now-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 inner 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.
The federation runs Spain’s males’s and girls’s nationwide soccer groups and its semi-professional and novice soccer leagues.
It additionally organizes the referees. The authorities maintains some oversight of the entity however can not title or take away its executives.
Weeks after turning into essentially the most highly effective man in Spanish soccer, Rubiales confirmed he wouldn’t tolerate any act that he thought of disloyal when he fired the coach of Spain’s males’s staff simply two days earlier than its first match on the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Julen Lopetegui had simply agreed to affix Real Madrid after the match, however Rubiales felt he had betrayed the nationwide staff and dismissed 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 prime European expertise like Cristiano Ronaldo – in alternate for $40 million a 12 months.
The golf equipment and federation cherished the money, however the transfer was criticized by ladies’s and human rights teams for the regime’s therapy of girls and minorities.
Spanish authorities additionally scrutinized the deal, and an investigative decide is probing the legality of the Super Cup contracts.
In half, Rubiales was tolerated as a result of he was thought of higher than his predecessor, Angel Maria Villar, who was in energy for almost three a long time earlier than he ended up behind bars for widespread corruption.
Rubiales elevated his maintain on energy by turning into a vice chairman of UEFA, which has remained silent on the scandal. Rubiales was spearheading what promised to be his best prize: a joint bid to host the 2030 males’s World Cup with Portugal, Morocco and presumably Ukraine.
But it appears the best sporting achievement of Spanish soccer beneath his watch has led to his downfall – until he can efficiently struggle in opposition to each FIFA and Spain’s authorities.
Not solely had been his actions deemed out of line, however his erratic dealing with of the scandal – which swerved from insulting his critics to a clumsy apology and finally 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 different ladies gamers, stated they might 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, essentially 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 center-right.
“Luis Rubiales is finished,” the president of Spain’s ladies’s league, Beatriz Alvarez, advised The Associated Press (AP). “He has dug his own grave with his acts and words.”
Source: www.dailysabah.com
