Luis Rubiales: Complaints are piling up against the president of the Spanish Football Federation, and not just for his forced kiss of the World Cup star

CNN
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While the hype surrounding the unwanted kiss revolves around the president of the Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, some may be surprised to learn that the initial complaint was not made by the woman he kissed, but by a man who was watching the match in Madrid.

Miguel Angel Galan was proudly watching Spain win the Women’s World Cup. His joy turned to disgust when Rubiales planted that strong kiss on the team’s attacking star, Jenny Hermoso.

Within minutes, Galán, the head of the National Center for Training Football Managers, said he was drafting an official complaint to the Spanish government’s Supreme Sports Council.

It was a sexist and unacceptable act. It is an act of chauvinism by a president already beset by corruption and sexism scandals.” These two structural problems of the Federation in Spain: corruption and sexism.

Obviously, there are many in Spain who would agree. They have hundreds I walked out in protest against rubiales. The Spanish women’s national team refused to play until Rubiales was sacked. Hermoso herself confirmed that she did not appreciate or approve of her boss’s blunt behavior at the World Cup.

“I felt vulnerable and victim of an impulsive, sexist and misplaced act,” she said. in the current situation.

Rubiales initially tried to stop the damage by videotaping a half-hearted apology. But when that did not quell public anger, he redoubled his efforts in a widely broadcast meeting of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and Defiantly refused to resignThe audience, which was mostly male, applauded. In his latest statement, he said he had made “some obvious mistakes” but had been treated unfairly.

Since Galán filed that first complaint against Rubiales on August 20, the day of the World Cup final, 15 more complaints have been submitted to the Commission on Sustainable Development, by organizations and individuals, ranging from allegations of sexual abuse to abuse of power, according to a CSD spokesperson. . In his recent statements, Rubiales has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

Although he has an official role, unofficially Galán is the archenemy of Rubiales and the Spanish Football Federation, as Galán has made it his mission to root out corruption.

He told CNN he had filed more than 50 complaints, some of which led to the arrest of the former federation president — Angel Maria Villar, who oversaw Spanish football for nearly 30 years — on corruption charges, and the walls of Galán’s modest office in Madrid were covered in paper. With headlines football scandals highlighted. He told CNN that the uproar over the kiss is just the beginning of a longer feud.

“What needs to be done now is to hold new and clean elections, so that women can participate in the institution,” Galan told CNN, referring to the upcoming vote for the presidency of the Spanish Football Federation. and then, by this election in the Federation, there may at last be a political renewal.

As the scandal grew, even members of the Rubiales family turned against him. His uncle and former chief of staff, Juan Rubiales, told Spanish newspaper El Mundo that he had seen his nephew use RFEF funds to host private parties and romantic getaways, as well as solicit kickbacks from Saudi officials to host the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia. .

“I wasn’t surprised at all,” Juan Rubiales told El Mundo about the kiss. “He is a very arrogant man and has not acted as a president should. Instead of being a political leader, he wanted to be a warrior who sees ghosts and enemies everywhere. In the end, his worst enemy was himself.

CNN has contacted both Luis Rubiales and the Spanish Football Federation regarding allegations made by Juan Rubiales. Neither of them responded.

When the uproar over the kiss broke, a Spanish prosecutor had already been investigating Rubiales for influence peddling and bribery since last summer, according to CSD documents obtained by CNN.

Rubiales has consistently denied all allegations of corruption in the past.

He was provisionally suspended by FIFA during the disciplinary hearing.

Why the broadcaster thinks the Spanish football president’s unwanted kiss with the player is ‘the tip of the iceberg’

Steeped in tradition, the Spanish Football Federation has long controlled the country’s lucrative football fortunes. But the entry of female soccer players into higher professional levels was a catalyst for change as they demanded equal pay and rights, exposing structural problems within Spanish football, says Beatrice Alvarez, president of La Liga, Spain’s top women’s league.

Alvarez said, “The matter is not resolved by the resignation of Luis Rubiales. This requires a process of absolute change and restructuring of the model and concept of the Football Association itself.” “I think there are many people close to Rubiales who are promoting this corrupt system… It is unacceptable, it shows that the whole model has to change more than the president has to change.”

Alvarez, a former soccer player, had her own differences with Rubiales.

Months into her new job in La Liga last summer, Alvarez, still nursing a newborn, said she had requested a video meeting with Rubiales. But the union president refused, Alvarez says, telling her to focus on being a good stay-at-home mom and delegate her work duties to someone he could meet in his office in person.

An unwanted kiss at the World Cup, she says, is just an extension of this same situation.

“It didn’t surprise me. It paints a picture of who Luis Rubiales really is. The one that some of us know privately, but now the whole world can actually see,” she told CNN. His career is what finally got this guy out of the federation.”