The President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) Luis Rubalies has been under the radar for kissing Spain's striker Jennifer Hermoso during the award distribution ceremony after Spain's World Cup triumph on Sunday.
Spain beat England 1-0 in the final of the FIFA Women's World Cup at the Stadium Australia thanks to a 29th-minute strike by left-back Olga Carmona, who at the age of 23 years and 69 days became the second-youngest player to score in both the semi-final and final of a single edition of a FIFA Women's World Cup tournament, behind only United States’ Alex Morgan in 2011 (22y 15d).
After the match ended, Rubiales was present on the ground to celebrate the team's victory and was handing players medals.
He gave a kiss on the cheeks of every player as they were receiving their gold medals, but the 45-year-old ended up kissing Hermoso on the lips.
The unexpected action of Rubiales was soon highlighted by fans on social media and the criticism started.
In an Instagram live session, the striker did not approve of the incident as According to a post on X by Spanish journalist Irati Vida, she said: “Hey, I didn’t like it, eh."
Spain's government minister Irene Montero talked about the incident and called the incident a form of "sexual violence".
"It's a form of sexual violence women suffer on a daily basis," she said. "We should not assume kissing without consent is something 'that happens."
However, as per the local media reports, in a statement by the RFEF, she was quoted saying that the kiss was a “natural gesture of affection.”
"It was a totally spontaneous mutual gesture because of the immense joy that winning a World Cup brings," she added.
The FA president told Spanish broadcaster COPE that it was nothing more than a "kiss between two friends" and anyone who sees it the other way is an "idiot and stupid".
"Let's ignore them and enjoy the good things," he added.
Spain became the fifth team to win the Women’s World Cup, after USA (4), Germany (2), Norway (1), and Japan (1). Prior to this year’s edition, they had only ever won one match at the tournament.
It must be noted that La Roja were embroiled in a controversy last year when 15 players said that they no longer wanted to be considered for selection due to coach Jorge Vilda’s strict personality.
However, the Spanish side, despite missing 12 of those 15 players, has achieved World Cup glory.
