Spanish Soccer Federation Says It Will Sue Over Player’s Account of Kiss

Spain’s soccer federation late Friday threatened authorized motion to guard its president’s status after a member of Spain’s victorious girls’s World Cup championship staff mentioned he had forcibly grabbed and kissed her on the lips, prompting requires his resignation.

Luis Rubiales, the Royal Spanish Football Federation chief, has insisted he did nothing flawed with regard to the participant, Jennifer Hermoso, who mentioned she by no means consented to his actions however had confronted stress to publicly again Mr. Rubiales.

Mr. Rubiales’s kiss — broadcast stay to tens of millions — forged a pall over the staff’s celebrations and recalled a historical past of accusations of sexism in Spanish soccer.

“I want to clarify that, as seen in the images, at no time did I consent to the kiss he gave me,” Ms. Hermoso mentioned Friday in an announcement issued by the nation’s soccer union. “I do not tolerate my word being questioned, much less that it be made-up words that I haven’t said.”

In a assertion, the federation vowed to take “as many legal actions as are appropriate in defense of the president’s honor” following Ms. Hermoso’s account of what occurred. Mr. Rubiales mentioned that Ms. Hermoso lifted him up, citing this as proof she authorised of his actions, and his group has backed him.

Ms. Hermoso has denied aspiring to elevate Mr. Rubiales.

Players on the Spanish girls’s staff, together with dozens of others, have mentioned they may refuse to play for the nationwide staff till “the current managers,” together with Mr. Rubiales, are gone.