MADRID, 6 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of LaLiga, Javier Tebas, considered that the kiss that Luis Rubiales, then president of the RFEF, gave the forward of the Jenni Hermoso team, has caused “the greatest reputational damage in the history of Spanish football”, and , after remarking that in a boss-subordinate relationship “consent is never understood” in this type of action, he made it clear that, although it is not a “crime”, it is “immoral and very serious” and that for this reason he believes that there should be ” the toughest sanction possible” for the manager, currently suspended by FIFA.
“I think that at the level of Spanish football it is the greatest reputational damage that we have had in history, and at the country level as well. I can say that there is more in digital news, more than 130,000 digital news that we carry on the subject of Rubiales in the world and all in a sense, in conservative and non-conservative newspapers. That indicates that the issue is very serious,” Tebas said during his appearance in the ‘Olé Sports Summits Leaders’ in Argentina.
The leader stressed “a very important issue.” “Beyond sexual harassment or not, as a lawyer I understand the figure well, it is inconceivable, unpresentable and embarrassing that a boss of an employee can ask her, holding her head, to give her a pick. And, whatever the employee says , because it is his boss who is there, it is that he does not have reaction time,” he explained.
In addition, he criticized that Rubiales “still tries to justify saying that he has consent.” “In the field of boss-employee subordination, consent is never understood, never in actions of this type. Another thing is that they had been dating for months, which was not the case. And Mr. Rubiales has to know that, but of course It’s not only that, you have to know that you can’t grab a player (Athena del Castillo) like a sack of potatoes, you can’t grab the Queen by one shoulder as if she were having a party, and I’m not saying the spectacle of touching genitals in a box,” he stressed.
For Tebas, what happened “is the tip of the iceberg in the behavior and way of understanding life, including understanding women” of the now suspended president of the RFEF. “I’ve known him for many, many years and if you ask me if he surprised me, I’ll tell you no,” he replied.
In this sense, the president of LaLiga believes that Rubiales is not resigning “because of the glamor of football.” “Not only the economic issue, it’s that it’s very difficult for people to get away from it. Being president of a football association in your country opens many doors for you, gives you many recognitions and you are in boxes full of authorities from many. That’s why I don’t go to any because I don’t like that glamor at all and I don’t want to get ‘infected’,” he remarked.
“But that is very difficult, that someone can leave him and someone who comes, and by this I do not want to say, to preside over the footballers’ union. And I think he does not resign because he thinks he did not do anything wrong, that is still the worst. When someone thinks that they have not done anything wrong and has not yet realized that more than 120,000 news outlets in the world criticize the action of the kiss,” he explained. “I do not know if it was a crime (the kiss), but it is an immoral and very serious thing that requires its sanction in the sports field, in my opinion the hardest possible,” he sentenced.