When Héctor Bellerín wrote: “The narcissist never believes they have made a mistake, they are able to lie, manipulate the truth and make the victim guilty in order to retain their power,” he wasn’t writing a “how to retain power” escape manual for Luis Rubiales. Except, you could be forgiven for thinking that’s how it has been taken, on the basis of the tripling down by the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) in support of its deluded president in the form of an 808-word defence of Rubiales.
The extraordinary RFEF statement – which dropped late on Friday night and is headlined “Official Statement of the RFEF in response to Futpro”, the Spanish players’ union – genuinely reads like it is meant to be Rubiales’s “A-ha! Gotcha!” moment.
From threatening Futpro and Jenni Hermoso with legal action to insisting it is an “obligation” for all federated players to participate in national team duty should they be called on, it is a lesson in how, to coin a phrase, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Rubiales is being backed. A staggering 81 women have said they will not play for Spain while he is in charge – but who internally has stood with them? Who edited the statement? Who formatted it for the website? Who posted it? Are they driven by fear or loyalty? And where the hell is their red line?
Staggeringly, Rubiales has homed in on the quote attributed to Hermoso in the Futpro statement that says: “In no case did I seek to raise the president.”
The RFEF then, at the base of its statement, proceeds to dissect four sequential photographs that appear to show Rubiales being lifted by Hermoso. Except they tell us nothing, nothing of the player’s intent, nothing of whether she lifted, or he leapt. It is a red herring, an irrelevance.
The RFEF has picked out that second half of a sentence and bolded it up like it is the key to its “truth v lies” narrative, triumphantly claiming: “The tests are conclusive. Mr President has not lied.” But it is the first half that matters: “I want to clarify, that as seen in the images, at no time did I consent to the kiss he gave me,” Hermoso says.
Lift or no lift, embrace or no embrace, Rubiales and the RFEF cannot undo what we all saw (just as Manchester United and Mason Greenwood, who had all the charges against him dropped, cannot undo what we all heard) and that is the president grabbing the face of Hermoso and planting a kiss on her lips.
His premise is that it was consensual, her alleged lie about the lift proves she is lying about consent, that he is the truth-teller and the truth will triumph, at least that is what we can assume.
A new statement, released on Saturday, reasserted these claims of consent and said that “Mrs. Jennifer Hermoso lies in all the statements she makes against the President” before accusing her of attempting to “change reality”.
But while we should take the player at her word, when she says no conversation about whether he could kiss her or not took place and that she didn’t like it, that also doesn’t matter. Consent or no consent, the president of the federation, or anyone within any workplace, should not be planting a kiss squarely on to the mouth of another person.
It is wholly inappropriate and, coupled with the president’s crotch grab during the Women’s World Cup final, his carrying of Athenea del Castillo over a shoulder, the statements of support from players, clubs and administrators all alluding to a culture of fear and intimidation and the bullish and deluded response from the man himself paints a dark picture of Rubiales’ character.
Rubiales and the federation need to wake up. They can stick their heads in the sand over what constitutes sexism, misogyny and abuse all they want, but that will not happen without consequence. Enough has been done and said by Rubiales with the world watching to ensure it is impossible for him to remain, despite his instance otherwise, and his stranglehold on power.
Fifa has acted, banning him for 90 days while disciplinary proceedings take place; Uefa, the European governing body, must be next to respond to the overwhelming pressure to take action against its vice-president.
But these organisations must look beyond the one man, at the culture of the sport as well as having an introspective look at how these individuals are able to acquire absolute power.
