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Suspended Spanish football boss Luis Rubiales has launched an extraordinary attack as he serves his 90-day ban.
Rubiales has been suspended by world governing body FIFA for 90 days while it decides on disciplinary measures following his World Cup kiss on Spanish midfielder Jenni Hermoso.
He issued his first public statement following his fiery defensive speech last week in which he refused to resign.
On Saturday he took things a step further on social media as he lashed out at the media and politicians who had “lynched” him.
“During all this time I have suffered an unprecedented lynching by news outlets and politicians that has completely marginalised me. Not just in Spain but internationally,” Rubiales said in his statement published on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The football official continues to argue the kiss was consensual, also insisted he was “advancing the feminist cause” and claimed his case would be significant for “real victims of aggression”.
“I have been deliberately sidelined. But I have presented all the relevant images that show the facts. That evidence will ignore opinions and clear my name,” he said.
“I want to send a message to all the good people in our country and beyond our borders, including those women who have really been attacked and who have my full support and understanding: this is not about gender, it is about truth.”
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday the country’s women footballers “gave the world a lesson” by going on strike over federation chief Luis Rubiales’ World Cup kiss.
“Our players have won twice: first on the pitch, and now in giving a lesson to the world, a lesson of equality between men and women” Sanchez said.
Hermoso joined a mass strike of women players last week saying she did not consent to being kissed by the country’s suspended football federation chief Rubiales after Spain’s victory in the Women’s World Cup final.
Sanchez, speaking in Malaga, applauded the players’ stance.
Last week in a statement released by women players’ union Futpro, Hermoso and 80 other players said they would not accept an international call-up “if the current leadership continues” at the Spanish football federation (RFEF).
Rubiales, 46, has defied expectations and refused to resign, provoking widespread indignation.
Sanchez said Spain was a feminist country, with women who had decided “to no longer submit. Never again. It’s over” in reference to the slogan chanted in demonstrations in support of Hermoso.
On Friday, Spain’s sports court agreed to investigate Rubiales for the forced kiss as the scandal-hit football chief insisted he would defend himself to “prove the truth”.
The government lodged a complaint against Rubiales through the state-run National Sports Council (CSD) a week ago, accusing him of “very serious” offences.
In agreeing to take the case, the Administrative Tribunal for Sport (TAD) said it considered the behaviour in question “serious”, falling short of the government’s characterisation of Rubiales’ actions.
Meanwhile, Veronica Boquete, a former national team skipper told AFP-TV in an interview on Saturday that the scandal was “the straw that broke the camel’s back”.
“It means that when there are no cameras, when there is no-one else, when it’s not the final of a World Cup, a lot of other things happen, which we normalise and let pass when that shouldn’t be the case,” said the Boquete.
The 36-year-old, who plays in Italy with Fiorentina, was axed as skipper in 2017.
She hit out at the management of coach Jorge Vilda who took Spain to the World Cup title last month despite tensions between him and his players.
“In the national team, if you complained and wanted to improve things, whoever was in charge didn’t listen to you and very often, you paid the consequences, which were exclusion from the national team,” claimed Boquete.
“So, it also caused fear of the consequences.” The 56-time capped player added: “Almost always, in the world of football, the people who are there are men, and they always have a fairly macho mentality. So it’s a constant war.
“We need people who work for us (women) and who want to do it, and not because it’s an obligation.”
— with AFP
