CNN
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As furor over the unwanted kiss surrounds the head of the Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, some may be surprised to learn that the first complaint was not filed by the woman he kissed, but by a man who tanned Look at the game in Madrid.
Miguel Ãngel Galán watched with pride as Spain won the Women’s World Cup. His happiness changed when Rubiales planted that strong kiss on the star striker of the team, Jenni Hermoso.
Within minutes, Galán, the head of the National Training Center of Football Managers, said he had made an official complaint to the High Council of Sport (CSD) of the Spanish government.
“This is a sexist and intolerable act. A chauvinist act, by a president already plagued by corruption scandals and sexism,” he told CNN on Thursday. “These are two structural problems of Federation of Spain: corruption and sexism.”
Clearly many in Spain agree. Hundreds already became a protest against Rubiales. Spain’s women’s team refused to play until Rubiales was removed. And Hermoso himself reiterated that he did not appreciate or agree with his boss’ rude behavior in the World Cup.
“I feel vulnerable and the victim of a passionate, sexist, out-of-place act,” she said in a statement.
Rubiales initially tried to contain the damage by recording a half-hearted apology on video. But when that didn’t stop public anger, he doubled down at a widely broadcast Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) meeting and defiantly refused to resign, to the applause of the mostly male audience. In his latest statement, he said he had made “some glaring mistakes” but was treated unfairly.
Since Galán filed the first complaint against Rubiales on August 20, the day of the World Cup final, 15 more complaints have been filed with the CSD, by organizations and individuals, from allegations of sexual assault. to abuse of power, according to a CSD spokesperson. In his most recent statements, Rubiales has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
Although he has an official role, Galán is unofficially the longtime enemy of Rubiales and the RFEF, where Galán has made it his mission to call out corruption.
He told CNN that he has filed more than 50 complaints, some of which led to the arrest of the previous president of the federation – Angel Maria Villar, who has been in charge of Spanish football for almost 30 years – on corruption charges and the walls of Galán’s no-nonsense office in Madrid are covered with headlines of the football scandals he uncovered. The kiss commotion, he told CNN, was just the beginning of a much longer fight.
“What really needs to be done now is a new, clean election,” Galán told CNN, referring to the upcoming vote for the presidency of the Spanish soccer federation, “so that women can join the institution. Then, through in these Federation elections, there will finally be a change in politics.
As the scandal grew, even members of Rubiales’ own family turned against him. His uncle, and former chief of staff, Juan Rubiales, told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo that he witnessed his nephew using RFEF funds to host private parties and romantic vacations, as also to request commissions from Saudi officials to host the Super Cup of Spain in Saudi Arabia. .
“I’m not at all surprised by that,” Juan Rubiales told El Mundo the kiss. “He is a very arrogant person who does not act as a President. Instead of being a political leader, he wants to be a warrior who sees ghosts and enemies everywhere. Finally, his most worst enemy is himself.”
CNN contacted Luis Rubiales and RFEF about the allegations made by Juan Rubiales. Neither answered.
When the furor over the kiss broke, the Spanish prosecutor had been investigating Rubiales for influence peddling and bribery since last summer, according to CSD documents obtained by CNN.
Rubiales has always denied all allegations of corruption in the past.
He has been temporarily suspended by FIFA while a disciplinary hearing continues.
Why the presenter thinks the Spanish football chief’s unwanted kiss on the player is the ‘tip of the iceberg’
Steeped in tradition, the RFEF has long reigned supreme in the country’s football revenue. But the entry of female footballers into the professional, higher ranks has been a catalyst for change as they demand equal pay and rights, exposing structural problems within Spanish soccer, -says Beatriz Ãlvarez, president of La Liga F, the top women’s league in Spain.
“It cannot be solved by the resignation of Luis Rubiales, it requires a process of change and a complete change in the model and concept of the Football Federation itself,” said Ãlvarez. “I think there are many people close to Rubiales who promote this corrupt system… This is unacceptable, it shows that more than the president needs to change, the whole model needs to change.”
Ãlvarez, a former soccer player himself, has his own disagreements with Rubiales.
Months into his new La Liga job last summer, still nursing a newborn, Ãlvarez said he asked for a videoconference meeting with Rubiales. But the head of the Federation refused, Ãlvarez said, telling her to focus on being a good mother at home and leave her work duties to someone who would meet her in his office in person.
The unwanted kiss at the World Cup, he said, was just an extension of the same attitude.
“I’m not surprised. This paints a picture of who Luis Rubiales really is. The person we knew privately but now the whole world can see him,” he told CNN. “I believe it is divine justice that women’s football, which (she) has ignored throughout her career, has finally removed this person from the Federation.