Rubiales apologizes for kissing Jenni Hermoso: "I was wrong"

   MADRID, 21 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Luis Rubiales, acknowledged on Monday that "surely" he was wrong to kiss the player Jenni Hermoso at the world champions medal ceremony, "a moment of maximum effusiveness" and "without any bad faith", although he insisted that he must "learn and understand that when you are president you have to be more careful."

"We are facing a historic event, one of the happiest days in Spanish football. World champions, an outrage. We have been working for this for a long time and we feel proud. But there is also a fact that I have to regret and that is all that has happened. happened between a player and me with a magnificent relationship between the two and where I was surely wrong", Rubiales started in a video from the RFEF.

The president explained that "in a moment of maximum effusiveness" and "without any bad intentions or bad faith" he kissed the soccer player on the lips "in a very spontaneous way." "Here we saw something natural, normal, but outside it seems that a commotion has formed," he admitted.

"There are people who have felt damaged by this, I have to apologize, there is no other choice. And also learn from this and understand that when you are president of an institution as important as the Federation, well, you have to, especially in ceremonies and in these types of issues, be more careful," Rubiales said.

In addition, the president of the RFEF valued his statements after the delivery of medals and the trophy to different media, in which he described the episode as "bullshit" or "idiocy". "In here, no one gave it the slightest importance. But outside they did. I also want to apologize to those people, because I understand that if it has been seen otherwise from the outside, they will surely have their reasons," he apologized.

"And lastly, I am sorry, because given the greatest success in our history in women's football and one of the greatest in general, this has somewhat tarnished the celebration. I think we have to give these women credit, to the team led by Jorge Vilda, and this has to be celebrated in style", Rubiales settled his statements.

The national soccer leader kissed Hermoso at the medal ceremony after winning the World Cup this Sunday, a fact that caused a cascade of evaluations and criticism on social networks in the political sphere.

Due to this episode, the acting Minister of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta, and that of Equality and that of Social Rights and the 2023 Agenda, Irene Montero and Ione Belarra, respectively, requested their resignation. The members of Podemos even spoke of "a form of sexual violence" suffered by women "on a daily basis and up to now invisible". "We cannot normalize it," they wrote on social networks.