Former aggressive midfielder turned confrontational players’ union leader Luis Rubiales is the director of Spain’s football federation and has come under criticism for kissing a Women’s World Cup player on the lips.
Following Spain’s 1-0 victory against England in the final on Sunday in Australia, the controversial 46-year-old is receiving demands for his resignation when he cradled star player Jennifer Hermoso’s head and gave her a hard kiss.
Rubiales, who was reared in Motril on Spain’s Mediterranean coast but was born in the Canary Islands, played for a number of lower league sides until wrapping off his football career in 2009 with Scotland’s Hamilton Academical.
He was a physically powerful contemporary defender. He loved to make attacks. He constantly served as an example of commitment and loyalty to everyone. previous Levante coach Manolo Preciado once said of Rubiales, who played for the Valencia-based side between 2003 and 2008.
Rubiales, who acted as the leader of a player uprising at Levante against unpaid pay, may have gotten his taste for politics from his father, who was the socialist mayor of Motril in the mid-1990s.
The squad went on strike, and the players finally received their pay. This victory probably gave him the motivation to stand up for his coworkers at the Spanish football players’ union AFE, which he led from 2010 to 2017.
AFE was established under his direction, and he managed the establishment of a fund to replace unpaid salaries, calling for two national player strikes in 2011 and 2015. Additionally, he got La Liga to consent to give AFE a cut of its TV broadcast rights.
“Win for certain”
During this period, he initially ran afoul of La Liga President Javier Tebas, and they continued until Rubiales was chosen to lead the football federation in 2018.
Rubiales was formerly deemed “not qualified” for the position, according to Tebas.
Juan Larrea, the federation’s previous treasurer and acting leader, lost to Rubiales in the race for the presidency.
After the federation’s longstanding president, Angel Villar, was suspended on suspicion of embezzlement and other charges, Larea assumed the position on an interim basis.
Before the voting, Rubiales, a divorced father of three kids, told reporters, “I’m going to win for sure.”
Just two days before the commencement of the 2018 World Cup, Rubiales unexpectedly fired Julen Lopetegui, the men’s national coach of Spain, shortly after he was chosen.
Rubiales, who was re-elected as the federation’s president in 2020, infuriated supporters of traditional Spanish football by making the Super Cup match between the league champions and Copa del Rey winners a four-team event.
He also encountered a significant criticism after agreeing to a lucrative contract to compete in Saudi Arabia, a country that is routinely accused of violating human rights.
‘Falsehoods’
The arrangement to move the Super Cup to Saudi Arabia is said to have cost a business named Kosmos, controlled by former Barcelona defender Gerard Pique, millions of euros in commission, according to audio recordings that were leaked to Spanish media in 2022.
Rubiales denied the claims, calling them “falsehoods,” and declared himself “extremely furious” at the unauthorised theft of information from his mobile device.
In addition, Rubiales received appreciation for improving the circumstances of lower-tier clubs, which attracted the support of provincial football federations, as well as increasing the number of sponsors of the federation and its profits.
“He has made a significant shift. He brought a 19th-century institution into the twenty-first century, head of the football association in northern Aragon, Oscar Fle, told sports radio Marca last year.
When 15 international players staged a mutiny last year over the manager’s tactics, Rubiales raised the budget for women’s football to 406 million euros ($439 million) in 2022, but he still supported Jorge Vilda as the head coach of the national women’s team.
The wager was successful since the team won the Women’s World Cup, but Rubiales’ position is now in jeopardy because of how he celebrated.