Spain coach Luis de la Fuente apologised Friday for applauding soccer federation president Luis Rubiales’ speech final week through which he mentioned he wouldn’t resign, after his forcible kiss on the lips of Women’s World Cup star Jenni Hermoso.
“I have to say sorry, I made a mistake, it’s inexcusable,” De la Fuente informed a news convention.
ALSO READ: Rubiales-Hermoso controversy timeline: How did the scandal across the RFEF chief unfold?
Rubiales, 46, sparked worldwide outrage when he forcibly kissed Spain midfielder Hermoso through the Women’s World Cup medal ceremony in Sydney on August 20.
The Spanish soccer federation (RFEF) chief provoked additional ire with a defiant speech at an emergency assembly through which he refused to resign regardless of mounting strain and as a substitute railed towards “false feminism”, which De la Fuente applauded.
Rubiales insisted his kiss was consensual, however Hermoso mentioned it was not and he or she felt just like the “victim of an assault”.
World soccer governing physique FIFA provisionally suspended Rubiales for 90 days after which De la Fuente printed a press release criticising the president’s behaviour.
Some critics, together with Spanish second deputy prime minister Yolanda Diaz, mentioned De la Fuente couldn’t proceed in his publish.
“I received heavy criticism for (applauding) and I think that it’s totally deserved, I understand it, I apologise for it, it was unjustifiable,” mentioned De la Fuente.
“I came to the assembly convinced that we were seeing the goodbye of a president and it turned into the opposite.”
De la Fuente mentioned the scenario generated “emotional stress” and stunned these current.
“I arrived thinking it would be a resignation and we went into shock when we saw it wasn’t like that,” he added.
“I was not at the right level and I could not control my emotions. Later when you look and you see yourself on the cameras… I didn’t recognise myself.”
