On the morning of Friday, August 25, the long-awaited speech by the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation took place to give his version of the events surrounding what happened with Jennifer Hermoso after the victory in the World Cup final. What nobody expected is that, after his controversial statements, there would be several official statements throughout the day.
The first to arrive was that of the players of the Spanish National Team through the Futpro union in which they made it clear that they support their partner and that they will remain by her side and defend their version of events at all times. They also announced that none will participate again in the selection until there are changes in the board of directors.
Just a few hours later, the protagonist of the story, Jennifer Hermoso, published on her social networks how she had been pressured to defend Luis Rubiales by different people and even by the RFEF. She also made clear her intentions not to play with the National Team again, like her teammates, as long as the current leaders continue.
Well, at the end of the day, the official statement from the Royal Spanish Football Federation arrived, which intended to respond to these two previous statements by the players. Emphasizing the “absolute desire for transparency” that Luis Rubiales has manifested in the Extraordinary Assembly this morning, they assure that the institution has tried to speak with Jennifer Hermoso on several occasions but they have not been able to contact her. With various images of the moment before the kiss, in which the player and the president embrace, they detail how she would have been the one who lifted him off the ground, denying the player’s words in her statement with the words: “in no case did I seek to raise to the president”.
Declaring themselves in favor of Luis Rubiales, they announce the presentation of “as many legal actions as may correspond in defense of the good repute of the President of the RFEF who has exposed in a clear and simple way how the events that are the cause of conflict and ridicule for part of broad sectors of society against Mr. President”. Before finishing the statement, they make it clear that they respect the decisions of the players to participate or not in the following matches, although they remember that participation in the team is “an obligation of all federated people if they are called to do so.”