The President of the Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, has apologized and admitted that he committed a mistake by kissing Jenni Hermoso on the mouth. The incident happened during the medal ceremony at the Women’s World Cup in 2023.
Spain hammered the trophy against England with a 1-0 win in the finals, following which Rubiales and Hermoso shared the moment that quickly went viral, and many even criticized it.
Hermoso “didn’t like” the kiss of Rubiales: and said, “What can I do?”
Following the incident, Hermoso said, “I didn’t like it” during an Instagram live session in the dressing room when asked about her reaction to the “sudden” kiss.
Her teammates were disgusted too, when they saw the video, to which Hermoso responded, “But what do I do?” while speaking to one of her teammates off the camera. Later in an interview, Rubiales rejected the ongoing comments and said,
“The kiss with Jenni? There are idiots everywhere. When two people have a minor show of affection, we can’t listen to idiocy.”
Rubiales apologizes for the kiss: and shares a video
On Monday, he shared a video apologizing for the incident. He said,
“There is something I regret, and that is what happened between me and a player, a player with whom I have a magnificent relationship, as I do with others.”
He further said,
“I have to admit I made a mistake because, in a moment of euphoria, without any bad intentions or bad faith on either side, what happened happened. It was very spontaneous, without any bad faith from any party.
Here, we saw it as something normal, but outside, it seems to have caused an uproar. It seems people have been hurt by this, and I have to apologize. I’ll try to learn from this and understand that when you’re the president of an institution as important as the Spanish Football Federation, you have to be more careful, especially in ceremonies and in these types of matters.
Besides apologizing for the kiss that earned criticism, Rubiales also regretted a statement he made in an earlier interview where he called people “idiots” who cared and criticized the incident. He said,
“I also want to apologize to these people because I understand that if it was seen in a different way from the outside, then they will surely have their reasons for that.
I’m sad that the celebration of this great success, our second World Cup, has been tarnished in some way by this. I think we have to give credit to these women and the team led by Jorge Vilda, and this has to be celebrated in a major way.”
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