Spanish Soccer Chief Finds His Defenders Backing Away

It remains to be seen how this ends up playing out. However, Luis Rubiales the President of the Spanish Soccer Federation, has by virtue of the kiss he planted on the lips of spanish soccer star Jennifer Hermoso, following the spanish teams World Cup victory, set in motion an #MeToo reckoning in Spain and beyond.

We’ll see where it goes, but as support for Mr. Rubiales evaporates, we are reminded what the Buddha taught us, ie: that while a single, thoughtless act might not ruin one’s life, if that bad behavior were to become habitual, the karma created would attract to that person exactly what is needed for their personal growth. That appears to be what Mr. Rubiales is currently finding out.

Many people will likely then point to him and say in knowing fashion, “See! What goes around comes around!” Some of them will then turn around and do something equally mindless themselves. “What is so easy to see in others, is so hard to see in ourselves!”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/27/world/europe/spain-luis-rubiales.html?smid=em-share

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Spanish Soccer Chief Finds His Defenders Backing Away

Luis Rubiales was widely condemned for kissing a player after the Spanish women’s team won the World Cup, but retained a few public supporters. Many now appear to be reconsidering.

Reporting from Zaragoza, Spain

When the president of the Spanish soccer federation, Luis Rubiales, kissed Jennifer Hermoso, a star forward on the Spanish national team that had just won the Women’s World Cup, much of the Spanish news media condemned his behavior. Most mainstream outlets, along with Spaniards on social media, called out the kiss as evidence of a callous disregard for Ms. Hermoso and, more broadly, lingering sexism in soccer.

Not the radio sportscaster Manolo Lama. Mr. Lama said on a popular late-night show on the Cadena Cope radio station, “Those who are angry, it’s because they have never been kissed.” He used the female pronoun for “they” in Spanish.

Earlier, in a post-match interview with Mr. Rubiales, also on Cadena Cope, a popular sports presenter, Juanma Castaño, did not question the federation president about the appropriateness of his behavior. When Mr. Rubiales characterized the kiss as a “peck between two friends celebrating something” and brushed off his critics as “losers,” “idiots” and “stupid people,” Mr. Castaño laughed and said, “I think the same thing.”

As the chorus of condemnation grew over the week following Mr. Rubiales’s actions at the World Cup final, it became harder to defend the federation president.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez waded in, calling it “unacceptable” that the soccer chief had kissed a player on the lips without her consent. The secretary of the opposition People’s Party, Cuca Gamarra, described the kiss as “shameful.” On Saturday, the world soccer federation temporarily suspended Mr. Rubiales. On Monday, Spanish soccer officials will hold an emergency meeting about the situation.

Since their initial comments, both sports journalists have apologized to their audiences. Mr. Castaño issued a statement last Monday saying that he now realized the kiss was “more than a mistake with no importance.”

Mr. Lama published an apology of sorts on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, asking last Monday for “forgiveness from those I have offended.” But he did not condemn Mr. Rubiales, and wrote of the kiss: “I simply think it is an act produced from euphoria and without malice.”

“But Spain has become a country of inquisitors,” he continued, “if you think differently, you’ll be stoned.”

The Cadena Cope radio station did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The kiss has brought the ongoing lively conversation in Spain about the treatment of women back into the fore.

Some of Spain’s conservative mainstream news outlets have used the incident to take a dig at a controversial law passed in August last year by Mr. Sánchez’s Socialist government. The law classifies all nonconsensual sex acts as rape, but initially contained a loophole that allowed some convicted offenders to lower their sentences.

On Saturday, an editorial in Spain’s conservative newspaper, La Razón, described the episode as a “national monstrosity,” and said the progressivism of Mr. Sánchez’s government had created an environment that enabled Mr. Rubiales. “His vulgar and inappropriate behavior in the Women’s World Cup final would have been impossible” the editorial said, without the protection that Sánchez’s government “has provided to his escapades.”

The more left-leaning El País has focused on the emergence of a hashtag in support of Ms. Hermoso: “se acabó,” or “it’s over,” coined by Alexia Putellas, a member of the Spanish national team, who is widely acknowledged as the best female player in the world. An editorial on Saturday said that “women are saying enough to the abuse of power and Spanish society is with them.” By Sunday, El País led with the simple affirmation: “Spain no longer tolerates ‘los Rubiales,’” referring not only to Mr. Rubiales, but to sexist behavior in general.

A rally with protesters using red cards to show their anger with Mr. Rubiales.
Protesters on Friday holding red cards, which signify the sending off of a player in soccer, as a protest against Mr. Rubiales in Las Rozas, Spain.Credit…Isabel Infantes/Reuters 

The sports newspaper AS, which had seemed to initially back Mr. Rubiales, has dropped its support for the soccer chief.

Earlier this week, it ran a headline blaming Ms. Hermoso — “Jenni lets Rubiales take the fall.” By Saturday, after widespread criticism, it was leading with a photo of Mr. Rubiales and a more neutral headline in reference to him, “Struck down.”

Some of his colleagues at the Spanish soccer federation are shifting their allegiance as well.

On Friday, as Mr. Rubiales defiantly announced he would not be quitting, many of his closest colleagues, including Jorge Vilda and Luis de la Fuente, the managers of the Spanish women’s and men’s squads, gave him a standing ovation.

Hours later, FIFA announced Mr. Rubiales’s suspension from soccer for 90 days, and the entire female squad and dozens of other players signed a joint statement saying they would not take the field to play for Spain “if the current managers continue.”

Mr. de la Fuente and Mr. Vilda have now distanced themselves from Mr. Rubiales, with Mr. Vilda saying that he regretted the “inappropriate conduct” of his boss.


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Spanish Soccer Chief Finds His Defenders Backing Away

Spanish Soccer Chief Finds His Defenders Backing Away

U.S. Coast Guard Academy, in New London, Connecticut between 1988 and 2006, including the revelation of leaders who discouraged disclosure. Those cases do not include at least 42 more that have been identified as not having been properly investigated. That is not to mention new Pentagon published statistics showing student-reported assaults at West Point, the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy.

So after all the accusations and denials, the truth is finally revealed about Bill Cosby’s lifetime of raping young women, who were unfortunate enough to cross his path. The answer as to how he got away with it for so long, lies in his skill of slipping a Methaquolone pill, otherwise known as a Quaalude, into a drink he would give them. It would render them helpless to escape his subsequent sexual assault. Of course, he had also built a persona of America’s Grandpa, that was the ultimate deception.I first heard about quaaludes (‘ludes) in college in the 60’s. Apparently, he did as well! The word was that if you could slip one into a girl’s drink, she would be more compliant than otherwise. The records show that Cosby had multiple prescriptions filled at least throughout the 70’s, then apparently, subsequently found other sources. It became his “MO” and many women his victim. But that game is over now, most likely for the duration of his life! As with most abusers, Cosby felt he had a way to evade the light from shining on what he was up to. He thought he was safe and would never get caught, but If accused, he could claim it was consensual. It is what all abusers think, regardless of the form that abuse takes, and sometimes it can work for a long while. But when the light finally does shine and reveals the truth, the rule is that the longer the perpetrator got away with their nasty deceptions, the deeper the hole they will have dug for themselves. Epstein escaped via suicide. I think they’ll be keeping a close eye on Bill!