The situation of Spanish football boss Luis Rubiales now depends on Spanish justice, which could decide, as of Monday, August 28, to suspend him longer. The International Football Federation (Fifa) decided on Saturday to suspend for 90 days Rubiales, president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), “from any football-related activity at national and international level”, two days after he opened a disciplinary investigation against him, after his forced kiss on the international Jenni Hermoso.
According to several local media, the Spanish Administrative Court of Sports (TAD) will meet on Monday to study a request for the suspension of the functions of president of Rubiales, 46, formulated for its part by the government. This suspension could last beyond Fifa’s 90 days, pending the TAD’s final resolution of the government’s complaint against Rubiales for “very serious offences”.
“We’re going to ask the TAD to meet on Monday. If the TAD accepts the government’s complaint, we will immediately proceed with the suspension of the functions of president, “said Spanish Sports Minister Miquel Iceta in an interview with the daily ElPais on Saturday.
“The only sanctions provided for by sports law are to impose a fine or ineligibility for a period of between two and fifteen years,” sports lawyer Toni Roca said in an interview on Sunday. on Spanish public television.
On the criminal level, the boss of Spanish football was the subject of four complaints for sexual assault received by the Spanish public prosecutor’s office on Friday, but none, for the moment, comes from the player, and therefore have little chance of succeeding. .
Rubiales sparked international outrage by forcing a kiss on Jenni Hermoso’s mouth on August 20 during the Women’s Worlds medal ceremony. Unexpectedly, he refused to resign at an extraordinary general assembly of the RFEF on Friday, and counterattacked by claiming that the kiss was “consensual”.
The player denied. “I felt vulnerable and victim of an assault, an impulsive and sexist act, out of place and without any consent on my part,” the 33-year-old Spanish N.10 said in a statement on Friday evening.
The Spanish federation issued a statement on Saturday in which it maintains that Jenni Hermoso “is lying in all her statements against the president”, before removing the same statement from its website. The RFEF also indicated that Pedro Rocha Junco, vice-president, would act as interim head of the federation during the suspension of his boss.
