Luis Rubiales, the Spanish soccer federation president whose antics tarnished Spain's Women's World Cup title on Sunday, publicly apologized Monday for kissing midfielder Jenni Hermoso during a postgame ceremony.
Rubiales forcibly kissed Hermoso on the lips during an enthusiastic embrace shortly after Hermoso received her winners medal on an on-field podium. The moment was"It seems unacceptable to me," Spain's minister for culture and sport, Miquel Iceta, said in a TV interview."We're in a moment of equality, of rights and respect for women. We all have to be particularly careful in our attitudes and our actions.
"We saw it as something natural and normal," he continued in the video — which was not posted on federation's social media channels."But on the outside it has caused commotion, because people have felt hurt by it, so I have to apologize; there's no alternative. I have to learn from this and understand that a president of an institution as important as the federation — above all in ceremonies and that kind of thing — should be more careful.
In the more immediate aftermath of the kiss, Rubiales had dismissed his critics as"idiots everywhere." He'd said on Spanish radio:"When two people have a minor show of affection, we can't heed idiocy." He addressed that comment in his Monday video as well."There are also some declarations I made where, within this context, I said [the outcry] seemed like idiocy — because on the inside, nobody considered it important," he said."But on the outside they had. So, I want to apologize to those people.
"I'm also saddened, because this is the biggest success in our history in women's football, the second World Cup that we've won, and this has affected the celebration."
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