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The world has been shaken by the scandal in Spain for weeks. The echoes of Football Federation President Luis Rubiales kissing Jenni Hermoso, one of the stars of the Spanish National Team, who won the Women’s World Cup, on the lips in front of millions continue.
Finally, on Wednesday, Hermoso filed a criminal complaint against Rubiales with the prosecutor’s office. At the end of last month, an investigation was launched against Rubiales as to whether his act could be considered as “sexual aggression”.
In other news, the team’s coach, Jorge Vilda, was sacked on Tuesday. Previously, many players had harshly criticized Vilda’s strategy to manage the team and complained about the oppressive and humiliating attitude of the coach.
Deputy Montse Tome sat in the coach seat instead of Vilda. Tome, 41, made history in the country as the first female coach to coach the national team.
After these developments, a news published in the New York Times revealed that what has happened in recent weeks is only the tip of the iceberg. Many women speaking to the newspaper revealed the systematic sexism that has been experienced in Spanish football for more than 10 years.
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The players stated that during the nights they stayed at the hotel, Vilda “checked the bedtime”, told them to leave the doors of their rooms ajar, and that they were sometimes subjected to comments that amounted to verbal abuse.
A photo from 2014 of Veronica Boquete, who was the captain of the team between 2015-2017
THE SAME TREATMENT TO THE TEPE MANAGER OF THE WOMEN’S LEAGUE
Moreover, it was not just football players who experienced these.
For example, when Beatriz Alvarez was appointed head of the Spanish women’s football league last summer, she requested a meeting with the President of the Football Federation, Luis Rubiales. After all, women’s football in the country, after being in the background for so long, finally came to be discussed from a professional point of view and Alvarez had a lot to talk about.
Alvarez had requested to do the meeting via videoconferencing, as she had become a new mother and did not want to leave her baby at home and go to the meeting. However, Rubiales refused this request and told Alvarez to send a substitute for him.
According to Alvarez, Rubiales said, “You should set an example by dedicating yourself to motherhood instead of attending the meeting.” Many subsequent meetings also took place without Alvarez’s participation. Describing Rubiales as an “egocentric chauvinist”, Alvarez said, “He sometimes implicitly and sometimes explicitly stated that women should know their place. He never cared about the women’s league. He managed women’s football with contempt and humiliation.”
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Rubiales and the Spanish Football Association did not respond to requests for comment from the New York Times. Federation representatives also refused to forward questions, reminding that Rubiales was given a 90-day suspension by FIFA. The federation has yet to take action on the dismissal of Rubiales, which it said was “absolutely unacceptable” at the World Cup.
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Rubiales, 46, first apologized and then changed his stance after the footage sparked controversy. Rubiales described the criticism as “false feminism” and declared that she was a “victim of social assassination”. To Rubiales, who claimed that Hermoso had hugged him and “pulled him,” Hermoso replied, “I never consented to him kissing me.”
Rubiales (left) turned a deaf ear to complaints about Vilda (right)
RUBIALES TECHNICAL DIRECTOR WAS BACK TO VILDA
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Announcing that they will boycott the national team until Rubiales is dismissed, the players emphasize that this will not be the only solution. Players state that the roots of the issue go back before Rubiales took office and that comprehensive change is needed. Many players, who sweated the national jersey both in the past and today, also signed a statement demanding a change in management.
Players complained about the behavior of Coach Vilda last year and requested a change, but did not receive a positive response.
15 of the football players came together and informed the federation that they did not want to take part in the team under Vilda’s management. While Rubiales refused to sack Vilda, the federation required players to apologize before considering their return to the team. In the crisis experienced last month, Rubiales’ refusal to resign, as well as the announcement that Vilda’s contract would be extended with a wage increase, angered the players.
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“HE WANTED TO CONTROL EVERYTHING”
Veronica Boquete, referring to the period of 2015-2017 when she was the captain of the team, said the following about Vilda:
“He wanted us to be in front of him when we gathered for coffee. He wanted to watch our body language, to see who we were meeting with and whether we were complaining about him. It was clear where the team captains would sit at meals because he wanted to make eye contact with us all the time.”
Noting that Vilda told the actors, “Leave your room door ajar when you go to bed at night, I will come and check”, Boquete said, “You might be talking about him when you go to other people’s rooms. He wanted to control everything.”
Boquete said the previous coach of Vilda, Ignacio Quereda, also told the players, “You need a good man.” Quereda denied the allegations.
It is not known whether this attitude will continue for the 2023 team. Because the players in the national team avoid speaking openly during the discussions. Sources close to the players also stated that the names in the team are afraid of being punished. The New York Times also stated that some football players who were ready to speak were not allowed by their clubs.
Jenni Hermoso, who lifted the trophy on behalf of the champion team, filed a criminal complaint against Rubiales
“I WAS LIKE ORNAMENT, I STATED LIKE A POTS”
Ana Munoz, who served as the Vice President of the Football Association in the past, said that she decided that her appointment to this position was nothing but a disgrace and resigned. Munoz, who resigned in 2019 after spending 1 year as vice president for integrity, expressed his reasons for the first time. “I was like an ornament there. I was like a flower pot,” said Munoz, adding that he often questioned whether the decisions Rubiales took were ethical or not.
Among the events mentioned by Munoz, the decision to host the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia for 10 years stands out. Investigations are still ongoing regarding both this incident and allegations that Rubiales held an orgy at a villa on the south coast of Spain with federation money. Rubiales denied the charges against him on both occasions.
Reminding that 15 of the 18 members of the federation are men, Munoz stated that he suggested that one of the members be temporarily suspended due to an investigation into misconduct, but his offer was immediately rejected.
Munoz also stated that after a competition, women football players were given tablets instead of cash prizes, and that Rubiales explained this decision with the words “I have daughters, I know what women want”.
When the Barcelona players won the Women’s Super Cup in January, Rubiales and other top federation executives left the stadium before the medal ceremony began. Players had to buy and wear their medals themselves.
WOMEN DON’T EVEN WIN 1 IN 10 MEN
On the other hand, documents reached by the New York Times showed that Rubiales was against a professional women’s league from the very beginning. Maria Jose Lopez, the lawyer of the union to which the players are affiliated, stated that in the discussions in 2020, Rubiales said that the teams could not afford the cost of professionalism. However, according to Lopez, Rubiales’ main concern was not to give the women’s teams bargaining power, especially in the context of television broadcast rights.
Alvarez said the federation tried to sabotage the opening of the 2022-2023 women’s season by supporting the referees’ strike last year. As a matter of fact, the first week’s matches were postponed due to the strike.
The 2023-2024 season in the Spanish Women’s League is scheduled to start this weekend. However, if there is no positive result from the meetings held in Madrid between the league managers and the representatives of the union to which female football players are affiliated, there is a possibility of strikes and postponement of the match.
The demands of the players include basic needs such as increased wages, continuation of contracts during maternity leave, access to the same nutritionists and physiotherapists as male football players. Officials of the union point out that the minimum wage is 16,000 euros for female players, while it is 180,000 euros for men.
Women’s footballers in Spain have been fighting sexism for generations. For example, when Barcelona’s women’s team played their first game in 1970, the announcer often asked, “Did your bra break?” he had asked. The next year, the president of the football federation at the time, Jose Luis Perez-Paya, commented, “I am not against women’s football, but I do not like it. I think it is not feminine from an aesthetic point of view. It does not suit women.” But Spain is not the only European country where there is sexism in football. For example, in 2004, then FIFA President Sepp Blatter said that women could “strengthen the sport by wearing tighter shorts”. In countries such as England and Germany, women’s football was banned until 1970.
Compiled from The New York Times article titled “Bedtime Check-Ins and Verbal Abuse: Women’s Life in Spanish Soccer”.
2023-09-08 05:02:00
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