The President of the Spanish Football Federation kisses the female player
Rubiales was on stage at the FIFA awards ceremony after the 2023 Women's World Cup final on August 20 with other officials, including FIFA President Gianni Infantino, Queen Letizia of Spain and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
On the podium, after presenting the medal, Rubiales hugged, put his hands on his head and kissed Hermoso on the lips. Then the RFEF president patted her on the back as Hermoso left.
"I don't like it," Hermoso said of the incident to Mr Rubiales in an Instagram live video. This short video was shared by Spanish journalist Irati Vida on X, the social networking platform formerly known as Twitter.
On Radio Marca, Rubiales suggested that these were just "two people showing affection gently" and did not care about "fools", referring to those who were outraged by his behaviour. "We are champions and that's what I care about," added the RFEF president.
El Confidencial journalist Alberto Ortega criticized Rubiales for wanting to be the center of attention and that kissing Hermoso on the lips was "disgusting". The Daily Mirror's Colin Millar called the RFEF chairman's behavior "not okay".
Hermoso is not the Spanish female player that Rubiales kissed in the celebration after the final. The video shows the RFEF president kissing some people on the cheek and hugging several people after other members of the Spanish women's team received their medals.
Another video shows Rubiales celebrating with a group of players, before kissing Olga Carmona on the cheek - the only goal scorer in the final against England.
In Salma Paralluelo's Instagram live video, Rubiales walks into the dressing room and tells the Spanish players that the RFEF will pay for the trip to Ibiza in full, and that's where he will marry Hermoso.
CNN has reached out to Hermoso representatives and RFEF members in Australia about the incident, but has not yet received a response.
Rubiales is a former player, grew up at Atletico's youth academy, won the Spanish Second Division with Levante in 2004 and went up to play in La Liga. After retiring in 2009, Rubiales was elected president of the Spanish Footballers Association and was elected RFEF president in May 2018. One of Rubiales' first big decisions was to fire coach Julen Lopetegui just before Spain's 2018 World Cup, after learning that the coach had reached an agreement to lead Real Madrid.
