CNN
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Amid a row over the infamous unwanted kiss centered on Spanish football federation president Luis Rubiales, the first complaint was filed not by the woman who kissed, but by a man who attended the match in Madrid. Some may be surprised to find out what I did.
Miguel Angel Galán watched with pride as Spain won the Women’s World Cup. His joy turned to disgust when Rubiales gave the team’s star striker Jenni Hermoso that forceful kiss.
Within minutes, Galán, director of the National Training Center for Football Coaches, said he was drafting an official complaint to the Spanish government’s High Council for Sport (CSD).
“It was a sexist and unacceptable act. A xenophobic act by a president already plagued by corruption scandals and sexism,” he told CNN Thursday. “Those are the two structural problems of the Spanish federation: corruption and sexism.”
Clearly, many in Spain agree with this.Hundreds have went to protest Battle of Rubiales. The Spanish women’s team refused to play until Rubiales was sacked. And Hermoso himself reiterated that he neither appreciated nor agreed with the manager’s disrespectful behavior at the World Cup.
“I felt vulnerable, a victim of compulsive sexist and out-of-place behavior,” she said. in the statement.
Rubiales initially tried to contain the damage by recording a half-baked apology video. But when that did not quell public outrage, he doubled down at a highly televised meeting of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), stubbornly refused to resign, erupted in applause from the mostly male audience. In his latest statement, he said he had made “some glaring mistakes” but had been wronged.
Since Galán filed his first complaint against Rubiales on August 20, the day of the World Cup final, 15 more have been filed, ranging from sexual assault allegations to abuse of power. Both organizations and individuals reportedly submitted to the CSD. Spokesperson for CSD. In recent statements, Rubiales consistently denied any wrongdoing.
Garan has an official role but unofficially is a longtime nemesis of Rubiales and the RFEF, who has made it his mission to denounce corruption.
He told CNN that he had filed more than 50 complaints, some of which led to the arrest of the former federation president. Angel Maria VijarGalán, who oversaw Spanish football for almost three decades after being accused of corruption, has headlines on the walls of his modest office in Madrid, following the football scandal he came to light. He told CNN that the kissing scandal was just the beginning of a long-running feud.
“What we really have to do now is a new and clean election,” Galán told CNN, referring to the upcoming elections for the president of the Spanish Football Federation. It is,” he said. And through these elections in the federation, political renewal is finally possible. ”
As the scandal escalated, even Rubiales’ own family turned against him. His uncle and former Chief of Staff Juan Rubiales told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo that his nephew had used RFEF funds to host private parties and romantic getaways, as well as to host the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia. He said he witnessed a commission from the Saudi authorities to host the event. .
Juan Rubiales: “I wasn’t surprised at all” told El Mundo about kissing. “He’s an extremely arrogant person and doesn’t do what he deserves as president. Instead of being a political leader, he wanted to be a warrior with ghosts and enemies everywhere. His greatest enemy was himself.”
CNN has reached out to both Luis Rubiales and the RFEF regarding the allegations against Juan Rubiales. Neither responded.
According to CSD documents obtained by CNN, Spanish prosecutors had already been investigating Rubiales for influence grabbing and bribery since last summer when the kissing scandal erupted.
Rubiales has consistently denied allegations of corruption.
He has been provisionally suspended by FIFA as a disciplinary hearing is pending.
The reason why the moderator thinks that the unwanted kiss between the Spanish soccer coach and the player is ‘the tip of the iceberg’
The RFEF, steeped in tradition, has long dominated the country’s lucrative football fortunes. But the entry of women footballers into the upper professional ranks, demanding equal pay and rights, exposes the structural problems of Spanish football and is a catalyst for change, Spain’s top officials said. Beatriz Alvarez, president of the women’s league La Liga F, said:
“This will not be resolved by the resignation of coach Luis Rubiales. This will require a process of change and an absolute restructuring of the model and concept of the football federation itself,” Alvarez said. “I think there are many people close to Mr. Rubiales who are pushing for this corrupt system … This is unacceptable. It shows that the whole model has to change more than the president has to change. Masu.”
Alvarez, himself a former footballer, has a disagreement with Rubiales.
Months into his new job at La Liga last summer, Alvarez, who was still breastfeeding his newborn, said he had requested a video conference with Rubiales. But Alvarez said the federation president refused, telling his family to focus on being a good mother and to let someone he could meet face-to-face in the office do the work.
Unwanted kisses at the World Cup are just an extension of that same attitude, she says.
“It didn’t surprise me. You can do it,” she told CNN. “I believe it is God’s justice for women’s football, which (he) has ignored for his entire career, to finally remove this man from their federation.”
