A grabbed crotch, a kiss, a strange fireman’s lift and a crumbling empire. The brazen and wholly unacceptable actions of the Spanish football federation president, Luis Rubiales, have surely ended his fiefdom at the top of his country’s game despite his insistence on Friday that he will not resign. How, though, did he feel so emboldened and so invincible that he thought he could lewdly grab his groin, then later plant a kiss squarely on the lips of striker Jenni Hermoso and carry Athenea del Castillo over his shoulder with the eyes of millions trained on him?
Welcome to the culture of football. Rubiales’s actions are not abnormal, they are symptomatic of a system that allows those in power to consolidate it to such an extent that they feel immortal.
“I invite you to stay with us for the next four years, earning half a million euros a year,” Rubiales taunted, promising the loathed national team manager, Jorge Vilda, that his future was safe with him.
“They are not trying to carry out justice, that’s fake. A social assassination is being carried out on me. They are trying to kill me,” shouted Rubiales to his adoring crowd at the extraordinary general assembly of the RFEF, where he had been expected to resign.
“Fake feminism does not seek justice, doesn’t seek the truth, doesn’t care about people. I repeat, they are preparing an execution.
“To these people who have said this about me, that have accused me, that are trying to kill me publicly … I’m going to defend myself, I’m going to defend myself like every other Spaniard should do in the courts.”
It is grotesque and unashamed, but also familiar. In 2018, Afghanistan women’s national team players exposed the horrific abuse they had suffered at the hands of the president of the federation; he was banned for life from football but others, more than complicit, remained while the president evaded arrest. When Fifa’s investigatory chamber concluded an Argentinian youth coach had violated a number of its code of ethics articles after five players came forward alleging sexual harassment and abusive behaviour, the all-male adjudicatory chamber overturned the decision citing insufficient evidence.
Despite Zambia’s head coach, Bruce Mwape, reportedly being accused of rubbing his hands over a player’s chest, after he was a subject of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, he still managed the team at the World Cup. The list of countries affected by allegations of abuse in football goes on: Australia, Barbados, Canada, Colombia, Comoros, Ecuador, Gabon, Haiti, Malawi, Mongolia, Netherlands, Sierra Leone, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, Zimbabwe.
Then there are cases such as that of Mason Greenwood. Despite being accused of attempted rape, assault and controlling and coercive behaviour, until the complainant withdrew her cooperation and new material came to light that meant the CPS dropped the charges, the possibility of Greenwood making his return in a Manchester United shirt was still being discussed.
In football, it’s the votes and money that talk. Players are made to feel as if they exist outside the laws of normal society because they are extraordinarily valuable assets that clubs will go out of their way to protect. Meanwhile, officials feel untouchable because they are propped up by a network of voting and handshakes that ensures their loyalty is rewarded with a seat in front of the trough and protection.
Look at Rubiales. Yes, Fifa has announced it has launched an investigation but that came four days after the final, where Rubiales’s actions were there for all to see. Meanwhile, Uefa, of which Rubiales is a vice-president, remains silent.
Football may attempt to say the right things over equality and women’s rights, but the reality is that if tackling complaints risks exposing an ally or being financially detrimental then those words prove to be cheap.
What needs to happen? Fifa promised some sort of “safe sport” type entity in 2021 but the process of establishing it has stalled. That process needs to be accelerated, with the right stakeholders at its head, Fifa far from it, and with safe reporting mechanisms for players; it needs to be given real power to implement change and sanctions.
“Pick the right battles. Pick the right fights,” said Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, before the final of the Women’s World Cup. “You have the power to change. You have the power to convince us men what we have to do and what we don’t have to do. You do it. Just do it.” Well, Gianni, this is the fight we are picking, are you convinced? Will you do it?
Finally, it is important that Rubiales is not used as a scapegoat, treated as a rogue entity. After Rubiales finished his speech to the extraordinary general assembly called by the federation, the room rose to its feet, giving the deluded narcissist a standing ovation, with Vilda and Luis de la Fuente, the men’s national team manager, among those delivering the applause where they should have been appalled.
This is not new. In September, 15 players wrote to the federation explaining saying that they would be withdrawing from selection until the culture around the national team, which was affecting their health and mental state, was resolved. Instead, they were clamped down on, exiled by a heavy-handed federation that backed its manager and demanded apologies from any player wishing to return. It was billed as a mutiny, players attempting to overthrow a manager.
It was a similar story in 2015. After Spain finished bottom of their group at the World Cup in Canada, players accused head coach, Ignacio Quereda, of presiding over a culture of fear, sexism and rampant homophobia during his 27-year reign, details of which fully emerged in a 2021 documentary called Breaking the Silence. Quereda had been backed by then-president Ángel María Villar (who was suspended after being detained on allegations of collusion, embezzlement, and falsifying documents, allegations which he denied), before leaving the role in 2015 after the players went public and pressure mounted, but the senior players were punished, phased out of the side now managed by Vilda.
This is systemic. The structures of Spanish football need tearing down. The structures of football need tearing down. And, Spanish football does not exist separately from society, it reflects it. If football, or society, cannot deliver a safe environment for players or for women, they need to change.
