Spanish football chief Luis Rubiales has refused to resign from his position as Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) president, following backlash after kissing Spanish defender Jenni Hermoso.
Speaking at the federation’s Extraordinary General Assembly on Friday, Rubiales said:
“Everyone there – even some of them my family, my daughters – the desire that could have been there in that kiss is exactly the same that could have been as giving a kiss to one of my daughters. No more, no less.”
“It was a spontaneous kiss … It was spontaneous, mutual, euphoric and with consent, which is the key. This is the key to all of the criticism, of all of the campaign which has been mounted in this country: that it was without consent. No. It was with consent.”
“When Jenni first showed up, she lifted me up from the ground. She grabbed me by the hips, by the legs, I don’t remember well,” he said. “She lifted me up from the ground – and we almost fell down.”
“And when she put me down on the ground, we hugged each other. She’s the one who picked me up in her arms and she pulled me into her body. We hugged and I told her, ‘Forget about the penalty. You were fantastic, we wouldn’t have won this World Cup without you.’ She replied to me, ‘You are awesome.’ And I said, ‘A small peck?’ And she said, ‘OK.’”
“Then the peck happened during all of this celebration with her patting me on the side a few times and then excusing herself with one more hand on the side and going off laughing. That’s the whole sequence. That the whole world understood, that the whole world thought was an anecdote, and above all, she said was an anecdote and nothing more.”
He went on to ascertain that he was not going to resign.
“Do you think I have to resign? Well, I’m going to tell you something: I’m not going to resign! I’m not going to resign! I won’t resign! I’m not going to resign! I’m not going to resign!”
