The president of the Spanish football federation, Luis Rubiales, has finally bowed to pressure and will announce his resignation on Friday after kissing Jenni Hermoso without her consent.
The 46-year-old prompted a huge backlash during the presentation ceremony at the Women’s World Cup on Sunday when he grabbed Hermoso, 33, by the head and kissed her on the lips, with the forward later saying she ‘did not like it’.
A statement later that same evening claiming to be from Hermoso in which the incident was downplayed is now believed to have been written by the Spanish FA’s (RFEF) communications team.
Hermoso refused repeated requests from Rubiales to appear in an apology video he filmed on Monday and on Wednesday evening she confirmed, via her union FUTPRO, that she would be pursuing action against the RFEF president.
The calls for Rubiales to be removed from his position have continued to get louder, with Liga F – the Spanish women’s league – calling for Spain’s National Sports Council to take action, while the country’s prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, said the apology alone ‘was not adequate’.
On Thursday, football’s world governing body FIFA also released a statement confirming that they had opened disciplinary proceedings against Rubiales.
The former journeyman defender had initially hoped to ride out the storm, with suggestions he could hand himself a two-month ban before returning later this year, but widespread reports in the Spanish media on Thursday night claim he has now decided to resign.
The RFEF had already called an emergency general assembly on Friday and now Spanish radio station Cope are reporting that Rubiales will resign during the meeting.
He informed his ‘close circle’ of the decision on Thursday evening and is believed to have felt his position had become untenable after numerous La Liga clubs said they would boycott the meeting and various notable figures – such as Atletico Madrid president Enrique Cerezo – demanded his resignation.
The RFEF were also informed by the head of Spain’s National Sports Council, Victor Francos, that if they did not act then the government agency would be forced to.
Rubiales had initially downplayed his forced kiss on Hermoso, describing anyone who was offended by it as ‘idiots’, but later released a video apology via the RFEF.
‘In a moment of maximum effusiveness without any bad intentions and no bad faith, it happened in a very spontaneous way,’ he said on Monday.
‘Here we did not understand the controversy and there has been a commotion outside… that if there are people who have felt damaged because of this, I have to apologise and learn from this, there is no other option.
‘I have to learn from this and understand that when I am the president of an institution as important as the federation, I have to be more careful in ceremonies and this type of issue.’
MORE : Spanish women’s league files complaint against Luis Rubiales and calls for his removal
MORE : FIFA open disciplinary proceedings against Luis Rubiales over World Cup final kiss controversy
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