Spain soccer outcast Rubiales facing trial for unwanted kiss at Women’s World Cup https://t.co/W9kVT1Bnrr
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 25, 2024
I noticed this in my trawl through online news sites — “Spain soccer outcast Rubiales facing trial for unwanted kiss at Women’s World Cup”:
After sullying his nation’s Women’s World Cup victory, former Spanish soccer president Luis Rubiales will face trial for kissing forward Jenni Hermoso without her consent at the final.
Investigative judge Francisco de Jorge ruled on Thursday that Rubiales’ kiss was “unconsented and carried out unilaterally and in a surprising fashion,” the court said.
State prosecutors accused Rubiales of sexual assault and for allegedly trying to coerce Hermoso to publicly support him in the public backlash against him.
Despite initially claiming he was the victim of a campaign led by “false feminists,” Rubiales eventually resigned from his post for his behavior in August during the World Cup final awards ceremony in Sydney. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The judge also ruled that along with Rubiales, former Spain coach Jorge Vilda, sports director of Spain’s men’s team Albert Luque, and the federation former head of marketing Rubén Rivera should be tried for allegedly pressuring Hermoso to defend Rubiales, a step she refused to take…
Hermoso testified before the investigative judge this month. The 33-year-old forward, Spain’s all-time leading scorer who plays in the Mexican league, has been widely supported in the country. The kiss scandal has many hoping it will spur a reckoning with sexism in Spanish sports.
Based on a sexual consent law passed in 2022, Rubiales could face a fine or a prison sentence of one to four years if found guilty, according to the prosecutors’ office in Madrid. The new law eliminated the difference between “sexual harassment” and “sexual assault,” sanctioning any unconsented sexual act…
FIFA banned Rubiales for three years until after the men’s 2026 World Cup. His ban will expire before the next women’s tournament in 2027. Spain’s sports authority also ruled him unfit to hold a post in sports management for three years.
Gotta think, when even the notoriously unpicky Daily Mail thinks Rubiales disgraced himself
Sometimes It’s the Simple Things
Alison Rose
Of course. Because a man like this doesn’t think sexual assault is wrong. He thinks it is his right as a man.
piratedan
You know, if the asshat had simply said, “you’re right, I overstepped and I apologize”, this probably could have been forgiven if he had demonstrated the smallest amount of contrition with a bit of sincerity.
yet…. here we are in the land of finding out.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@piratedan: Exactly. He brought all this on himself not just by the initial assault but by his behavior afterwards. All he had to do this last time was shut his mouth.
Harrison Wesley
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Hmmm – following up where the last post started off…..
Jackie
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yet another entitled white man who thinks… he’s entitled, and how dare you challenge him.
eclare
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Yep. And STFU costs nothing. Apparently a lot of privileged people all over the world never learned that lesson.
Yutsano
@eclare:
Yep. Which is why I’m gonna sit here and stay quiet so I can learn from y’all.
EDIT: I’m actually going to take a small nap. But I’ll be back anon!
Barbara
@Alison Rose: The way he talked made it sound like he (and a few others) thought that droit de seigneur lives on for the coaches and managers of a women’s sport team. It was really revolting. He also hid behind his wife and daughters. I will never forget AOC’s speech on that tactic when it was used by someone who had demeaned her in Congress.
Alison Rose
@Barbara: I hate when men defend their piggishness by saying “I have daughters”. Like, dude. The fact that you splooged out some X chromosomes doesn’t mean you aren’t a misogynist.
SpaceUnit
Apologies cost very little as well unless you’re wholly invested in being a dick. I was initially thinking that that the blowback to this incident seemed a smidge extreme, but if someone crosses a line and then immediately blames the backlash on feminazis, wokeness, or cultural marxism* then they’re clearly in dire need of a life lesson. Fuck this guy. Just apologize and grow the hell up. Christ.
* Also known as the Jordan Peterson defense.
HumboldtBlue
The amount of support he gets in Spain, particularly from his mother, spoke volumes. There are millions who still think he did nothing wrong, and they defend him — and a lot of other men — to the hilt.
Sexual assault and abuse are rampant in sports, and no level, nor sport, is immune.
Splitting Image
@Alison Rose:
Henry VIII had a daughter when he chopped his second wife’s head off. And he had two daughters when he chopped his fifth wife’s head off.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Splitting Image: it was a different time. /s [mostly]
Glidwrith
After watching the original video, I don’t know why the assault is characterized as a kiss. The man literally climbed up her body, holding on with all fours when he kissed her.
gratuitous
In related news, Gavin Wilkinson late of the Portland soccer clubs, was let go by Sporting Kansas City which had inexplicably hired him eight days earlier.
Alison Rose
@Splitting Image: If time travel is ever invented, I’m heading straight back to the early 1500s to explain to that motherfucker how babies are made. “Oh, you’re mad your wife gave you a daughter so you’re gonna chop her head off? Might be something else you oughta plop onto the block instead.”
satby
Friend of the blog Valdivia has been all over this incident and the racism in the FIFA on her Xitter feed. She considers both issues symptoms of the corruption in the FIFA, which deals out weak penalties only after pressured to by public outrage.