The President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, interpreted this Friday, with the same coarseness that he showed in the Sydney stadium, the final act of his career as a sports leader. Someone who He showed that he still doesn’t understand anythingnor the meaning of attitude during the celebration of the victory of the women’s team, nor the intolerability of their subsequent pressures, nor the offensive of their proclamations, can not represent Spanish football. And he does not represent it. Of course, not to the millions of fans who saw themselves reflected in the victory of the national team’s players and have seen between stupefied and embarrassed how it has been poisoned. If the applause that Rubiales received during the Federation assembly that he called to reaffirm his position and the complacent silences or statements from some clubs and federative estates (Barcelona and Real Madrid have been, for example, in a bad place compared to the attitude of clubs like Espanyol and Girona) represent still significant sectors of Spanish sport, they should take note. They are as far removed from the sign of the times as the character who walked a player across the pitch as if she were the trophy and he was the victor.
That was the message, beyond the kiss with which he asserted his position of hierarchical dominance over the player Jenni Beautiful or his testicular ostentation from the box. And this Friday she repeated each of her words and attitudes. What should have been a great party reaffirmation of women’s football (and it will end up being, but in a way that Rubiales would never have expected) it seems that for him it should have been an exhibition of success by its leaders, very masculine in the most outdated sense of the term, from language to mime. It is not that the explanations that Rubiales gave were again insufficient or inadequate. It is that he chained, one after another, outbursts that alone would be enough to make him dismissal, since he has not wanted to resign, which cannot be postponed. Charging the athlete who has confessed that she felt attacked and then coerced, questioning her word, hiding behind “she went” using the rancid arguments of abuseconsider yourself a victim of feminism… That even today you consider it explicable to have dedicated an “ole your balls” to the coach who imposed himself on a large part of his dressing room and excluded the players who did not bow down, the day the triumph was celebrated of women’s football, says it all.
The Secretary of State for Sport and President of the Higher Sports Council, Victor FrancosAfter expressing the Government’s disappointment at Rubiales’ appearance and announcing that he will take the necessary steps to have him disqualified, he stated that “this must be the #MeToo of Spanish sport.” The unfortunate performance of the soon-to-be ex-president of the RFEF has in effect led to a catharsis, a movement that must overcome outdated mentalities and entrenched structures. As should be happening in each sector where the initial example of #MeToo has been having its replicas. But the value of the unanimous reaction of 81 Spanish international players deserves that this shock be known by the very motto that they have used: it’s over. And above all, it deserves to be so. The very dignified attitude of the players and the unstoppable withdrawal of support (from athletes, politicians and sponsors) shows that something can change for the better after this scare