Spaniards celebrated their nation’s first Ladies’s World Cup victory on Sunday afternoon by holding dance events within the streets and sharing their giddy delight.
However it was a kiss seen around the globe that was the discuss of social media.
Amid the nationwide jubilation, many have been jolted by an impromptu kiss planted on the Spanish ahead Jennifer Hermoso by the president of Spain’s soccer federation, Luis Rubiales, in the course of the medals ceremony, an disagreeable reminder to lots of the sexism scandals which have plagued Spanish girls’s soccer.
After the Spanish gamers defeated England 1-0 and lined up onstage in Sydney, Australia, to gather their medals earlier than lifting the World Cup trophy, Mr. Rubiales enthusiastically grabbed Ms. Hermoso, kissed her on the cheeks after which kissed her totally on the lips, video of the encounter confirmed. Spain’s Queen Letizia was onstage on the time.
Later, in one other video, Ms. Hermoso is seen apparently making her distaste recognized, responding, “Hey, however I didn’t like that!”
The video of what many concluded had been an undesirable smooch was extensively shared on social media, spurring confusion amongst many Spaniards and prompting others to denounce it as extremely inappropriate conduct. Some called it disgraceful and proof of lingering sexism in soccer. Others demanded that Mr. Rubiales resign.
As of Sunday evening, he had not responded to the criticism. The soccer federation didn’t instantly reply to an e mail in search of remark from Mr. Rubiales because it was late in Spain.
The kissing episode revived recollections of the mistreatment of Spain’s feminine soccer gamers. For 27 years, the ladies’s nationwide staff had the identical coach, who was notorious for dismissing the gamers as “chavalitas,” or immature ladies. He was dismissed in 2015 after gamers protested.
Present members of the ladies’s nationwide staff have additionally complained that they’ve been disrespected by prime male soccer executives and denied the form of elite gear and remedy given to the boys’s groups. The ladies have mentioned that the amenities the federation offered for them are subpar and that Jorge Vilda, their coach, fostered an oppressive office setting, one by which the gamers’ each transfer was monitored by his workers.
Final fall, many gamers revolted towards the coach and federation, accusing them of mistreatment and withdrawing from consideration for the nationwide staff. Ms. Hermoso was seen as having tacitly supported the rise up.
The controversies didn’t cease Spain from profitable this yr’s World Cup. However the sudden kiss added one other dimension to the ladies’s victory.
In a live video posted on Instagram and shared on different social media platforms, Ms. Hermoso is seen celebrating together with her teammates within the locker room after the ultimate and smiling whilst she says the kiss was not wished.
Including to the confusion, Mr. Rubiales is heard in another video telling the gamers that they might be rewarded with a visit to Ibiza for his or her victory and including that it could be a possibility to have fun his “wedding ceremony” to Ms. Hermoso — an obvious reference to the kiss.
There isn’t any indication that Mr. Rubiales and Ms. Hermoso are in a relationship.
Nadia Tronchoni, an editor at El País, Spain’s largest newspaper, famous in an opinion piece that Sunday’s victory was “greater than a title” for Spanish girls.
“The ladies, the ladies of this nation celebrated the truth that our stubbornness has lastly defeated machismo,” she mentioned, referring to feminine gamers’ lengthy battle to be acknowledged. “Rubiales’s kiss to Hermoso reminds us that the street forward is an extended one.”