Outgoing Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Tuesday that the Spanish Football Association president’s forced kiss on a player after the national women’s team won the World Cup was “unacceptable.”
“What we saw was an unacceptable gesture (….) and the apology he has made is insufficient” and “inadequate,” Mr. Sánchez commented at a press conference in Madrid in reaction to the controversy that has been swelling since Sunday, when the president of the Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, kissed striker Jenni Hermoso on the mouth after the Spanish players won the World Cup.
Spain’s acting minister for sports and culture Miquel Iceta also condemned the gesture, saying “it is unacceptable to kiss a player on the lips to congratulate her.”
Rubiales himself said in a video statement released on Monday by the federation that he had "surely made a mistake" in “a moment of maximum effusiveness."
"When you are president of an institution as important as the federation, you have to be more careful,” he said.
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