The Rubiales case (Spanish: caso Rubiales) refers to the behaviour of and the events that followed the actions of Luis Rubiales, the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), during the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup final. After allegations of inappropriate behavior during the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup final on 20 August 2023, Rubiales' response was perceived by critics to have exacerbated the situation in the days following the tournament, and to have exacerbated the controversy. After an erratic speech he made on 25 August 2023, the entire Spain women's national football team withdrew from selection and several RFEF staff resigned; Rubiales was soon suspended from all football by FIFA and later found guilty.
There were widespread calls for Rubiales' resignation and structural change in the RFEF, paired with support for Jenni Hermoso – the player he had forcibly kissed on the lips at the final, and whom the RFEF was accused of mistreating following the incident – in Spain and from women's football teams around the world. The social movement caused by Rubiales' conduct and continued public denials of wrongdoing has been described as Spain's #MeToo movement; it quickly assumed the name #SeAcabó (lit. 'It's over'), from a tweet posted by Alexia Putellas after Rubiales' speech. Previous attempts by players using collective action to force improvements in the conditions of women's football in Spain have been either ignored or given outward but not systemic change.
The general unity of Spanish society in criticising Rubiales – including politicians from across the political spectrum – was considered unprecedented, as was the support of women's football from men's football players and teams. Rubiales subsequently resigned as president on 10 September 2023, later being banned from football-related activities for three years. A criminal complaint relating to alleged coercion is also being investigated.
Background
Women's football in Spain was officially recognised by the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) in 1980, after having been banned under the Franco dictatorship. The Spain women's national football team subsequently played its first official match in 1983. After various attempts to call out abuse under the previous head coach, Ignacio Quereda, a significant dispute involving the team broke out in 2022 over issues including the leadership of head coach Jorge Vilda, with 15 players withdrawing from selection.
The late 2010s and early 2020s also saw a number of high-profile public debates over sexual violence in Spanish society, with the government passing the "Only yes is yes" law in 2022. With women having very few rights during the Franco dictatorship, feminism in Spain has experienced rapid growth since; fourth-wave feminism in Spain developed in the 1990s. Largely academic in its beginnings, the fourth-wave movement gained momentum in wider society in 2018, with women's rights marches being well-attended and laws protecting these rights being passed. In terms of laws protecting women's rights, the rapid progress made since about 2018, when the social-democratic party PSOE regained power, placed Spain ahead of most of the world. Fourth-wave feminism in society and on social media emerged as a movement opposed to sexual violence, machismo, and rape.
Other teams involved in the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup also reported issues of sexual violence, notably Zambia and Haiti.
World Cup final
Incidents
On 20 August 2023, Spain won the 2023 Women's World Cup in a run that included winning a knock-out match for the first ever time and defeating England, the team that had sent them out of the Euro 2022, in the final hosted in Sydney, Australia. Following this match, there were several incidents of indecent behaviour on the part of then-RFEF president Luis Rubiales; the FIFA investigation identified four incidents, three relating to Spain players, and acknowledged two other issues relating to England players. Its decision report labels "the Genitals Incident" (a crotch grab in the authorities' box), "the Kiss Incident" (forcibly kissing Jenni Hermoso), "the Carrying Incident" (carrying Athenea del Castillo over his shoulder) and "the Peck Incident" (giving Olga Carmona "a peck on the cheek during [the] celebrations"). Testimony from Debbie Hewitt, the chair of the Football Association (FA), included in the decision report also said Rubiales "stroked" the face of Laura Coombs and gave a "forceful kiss" to Lucy Bronze.
After the final whistle, Rubiales was spotted grabbing his crotch while standing in the authorities' box near Queen Letizia and next to her 16-year-old daughter Infanta Sofía. On the pitch after the win, Rubiales lifted and carried player Athenea del Castillo over his shoulder. During the medal presentation, Rubiales forcibly kissed Spain's all-time top-scorer Jenni Hermoso on the lips after grabbing her by the head with both hands. Hermoso said shortly afterwards that she did not expect nor like the kiss when asked about why it happened, to Spanish radio and television, and in a social media video recorded in the locker room, saying "I didn't like it" then "but what am I supposed to do?" After this, Rubiales entered the players' locker room, reportedly throwing his arm around Hermoso and joking about marrying her in Ibiza.
The kiss was considered the main incident, due to its nature and because it was captured by the cameras of FIFA's official coverage as part of the live broadcast.
Responses
Rubiales was immediately heavily criticised by people from around the world. Besides considering the kiss both a form of sexual violence and an abuse of power, people in women's football and in Spanish society saw it as a reflection of persistent patriarchy in sports, a field where respect for women is considered harder to obtain. Sports journalists quickly denounced Rubiales' pattern of behaviour – El Confidencial's Alberto Ortega also noted Rubiales took the trophy off the players to celebrate with it – and, soon after, his responses, with the Daily Mirror's Colin Millar saying Rubiales' attempts to excuse and normalise his behaviour were further troubling.
Having initially described his critics as "idiots", "dickheads", and "losers" – and initially calling the incident "an unimportant gesture of affection" – on a Spanish radio show before leaving Australia, Rubiales published an apology video on 21 August, recorded while the delegation was on a layover returning from Australia; in it, he described the kiss as spontaneous and said that he had no bad intentions and was sorry for distracting from the celebration, saying: "I have to apologise, learn from this, and understand that when you are president you have to be more careful."
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez said that Rubiales' behaviour was unacceptable and the apology was not adequate let alone sufficient, saying "the players did everything to win but Rubiales' behaviour shows that there is still a long way to go for equality"; labour minister and second deputy prime minister, Yolanda Díaz, called for Rubiales' resignation. Irene Montero, the equalities minister, said the kiss was an everyday form of sexual violence that women need to be protected from, with the sports minister, Miquel Iceta, also condemning it. Beyond the cabinet, political parties of all alignments criticised Rubiales, and Adrián Barbón, the President of the Principality of Asturias, said the kiss was "an abuse that neither the moment, nor the euphoria, nor the joy justifies". The Association of Spanish Footballers (AFE) issued an official communiqué stating that if Rubiales did not resign immediately, they would demand that the Ley de Deportes (a section on punishable conduct) be applied. The Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) likewise called for resignation.
It was revealed on 22 August that Rubiales had "begged" Hermoso to appear with him in the apology video, and that manager Jorge Vilda unsuccessfully asked Hermoso's family several times to encourage her to support Rubiales. Team captain Ivana Andrés had also been asked to appear in the video: the RFEF considered her one of the players who saw them more positively and so may be more likely to comply, and hoped her presence would be interpreted as being on behalf of the whole squad. Andrés refused, later saying Rubiales was wrong. When Hermoso did not agree to the video, the RFEF sent a false statement in her name, downplaying the incident, to Spanish press agency EFE. Hermoso issued a statement through her union, FUTPRO, saying that the union and her agency would represent her interests; Futpro released a statement saying that they were working on seeing Rubiales' act punished and sought to see "women footballers [protected] from actions that we believe are unacceptable". The RFEF threatened legal action against Futpro in response.
On 24 August, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee opened disciplinary proceedings against Rubiales.
General Assembly speech and responses
The RFEF called an extraordinary general meeting for 25 August. Although Rubiales leaked to his close circle and the press that he would be resigning during the meeting, he instead recanted his words and vehemently refused to stand down. The speech was notably erratic; the next day Público journalist Esther Rebollo wrote in an article that she would not "repeat the phrases that [Rubiales] used to defend himself ... because rivers of ink have already been written about his unsportsmanlike, antisocial, ultra-sexist and even legally condemnable attitude." Goal described it as "career suicide".
Rubiales had brought his three daughters to the RFEF Assembly; he pointed them out, with part of his speech being delivered to them, saying "you [daughters] have to differentiate between truth and lies, and I [Rubiales] tell the truth." He also addressed Vilda, saying that he would offer him a new four-year contract worth €2 million. At another point, Rubiales repeated "I'm not going to resign" five times, compared to the "I'm not leaving" speech from The Wolf of Wall Street. In the speech, he referred to the kiss instead as "a peck", also saying it was "euphoric". He spent time recounting his version of events from the final, claiming to have had a full conversation with Hermoso and received her consent, though he continued to describe the kiss as "spontaneous". Other topics he postulated about in the speech were the rise of what he called "fake feminism" and how he saw it as the "scourge" of society, and the imprudence of the Spanish government, saying he would sue several ministers.
The speech was met with a standing ovation from members of the federation in the hall, who were criticised for this response. Also present were female members of coaching staff who had, according to 11 technical staff, been made to both attend and sit in the front row, to give the impression that Rubiales had support from women; the staff gave a statement afterwards, criticising this.
Rebollo felt that Rubiales' attacks on women and support of his male colleagues in the speech was a key point in causing male onlookers across Spain and the world to be "embarrassed, hurt and angry", and to embrace support for Hermoso, the women's team, and ultimately feminism. Sports media consumed by male football fans also generally criticised Rubiales. Sports journalists, particularly those familiar with Spanish women's football, responded to the speech by placing it and Rubiales within the "systematic issue[s]" that Spain and other women's teams face; freelance journalist Alex Ibaceta lamented in The Guardian that it took a World Cup victory for the team to receive enough attention that Rubiales "simply being himself" on camera could "give a taste to the world of what has been going on behind the scenes for decades at the Spanish federation".
In response to the speech, two Spanish men's national team and Real Betis players, Héctor Bellerín and Borja Iglesias, publicly denounced Rubiales on social media, with the latter also refusing to play for Spain until Rubiales resigned. Two former Spain national goalkeepers, David de Gea and 2010 World Cup winner Iker Casillas, also criticised Rubiales' speech on Twitter. Spain was in the final stages of bidding to co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup; following the speech it was widely understood that they would not be awarded the tournament if Rubiales remained in charge. Global players' union FIFPRO, having already called for action against Rubiales, published a further statement in support of Hermoso and denouncing Rubiales, which was shared by many players. Beatriz Alvarez, the president of Spain's Liga F, told RTVE that Rubiales' "ego is above his dignity" but she was still shocked by the speech and how "every time he speaks he shows what kind of person he really is." Hermoso plays club football in Mexico in the Liga MX Femenil, with many of these clubs announcing their support. The Spain national team sponsors Iberia and Iberdrola also issued statements criticising Rubiales' actions.
Nine football officials resigned from their RFEF roles either before the speech, if they were warned, or following it; at least 21 teams from La Liga, Liga F, and the Segunda División called for Rubiales' removal or resignation.