Deep Dive: Luis Rubiales

This is a deep dive episode of a show discussing sexism, racism, and machismo in La Liga, the Spanish professional football league. The episode focuses on the case of Luis Rubiales and how these issues still affect sports today. La Liga has had numerous instances of racism, but lacks the power to punish offenders. Brazilian player Vinicius Jr. recently spoke out against the racism he has faced in La Liga. The president of La Liga responded with a tweet that hinted at racism. The episode also discusses the history of women's football in Spain and the controversy surrounding the national women's team and Luis Rubiales. Rubiales has faced allegations of corruption and embezzlement. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Heya, peeps. I'd like to introduce a new aspect of the show called Deep Dives. This is where we will be hosting some of our topics that may be a little long or a little bit more in-depth than what we normally do on the show. These episodes won't have any regularity, and we'll have one of the five of us who just wants to info-dump on a subject. Okay, now that that's out of the way, this episode is The Reverend Doctor and Ted, where the Rev is talking about the Luis Rubiales affair and how sexism and machismo still affect the playing of sports in many aspects of today's world. So grab a drink, some snacks, and relax as we dive in. All right. Buckle in. Grab a drink. Alcohol, if that's your thing, because this is going to be a long one. Okay. We're going to talk about La Liga, which is the Spanish administration for their football league there, the inherent and ongoing racism, sexism, machismo, and, of course, Luis Rubiales. Yes. This is all going to be like background stuff, so it's just a really long thing. It all feeds into each other so you can understand. Right. So La Liga, in Spain, known as Liga Nacional de Futbol Profesional, in English, National Professional Football League, is the name for the administration that administers the two men's professional football leagues in Spain, which are the Primera Division, which is the top flight of Spanish league football, and Segunda Division, and also La Liga F, and Segunda Division would be the second division underneath Primera. And Liga F is for the women's top flight of league football, and it was only started back in 1988. They're all governed by the RFEF, Real Federación Española de Futbol, the Royal Spanish Football Federation, UEFA, which is the Union of European Football Associations, FIFA, which is the Federación Internacional de Futbol Asociación, or the International Association Football Federation, as well as by the Spanish government. The players are covered by a Spanish Players Association, the AFE, Asociación de Futbolistas Españoles, or Spanish Footballers Association, and International Federation, which is FIFPRO, Federación Internacional de Asociaciones de Futbolistas Profesionales, which is not supposed to be French, but I don't speak French, so yeah, you're getting the fucking Spanish version, sorry. The International Federation of Professional Footballers and FUTPRO, la Asociación de Futbolistas Profesionales, or the Association of Professional Female Footballers, the First Female Players Union. La Liga, just like any other professional football league, has always had scandals, and just like the biggest football leagues who are homed in the colonizing countries in Europe, have vast issues with racism, sexism, homophobia, and machismo. Some of the most notable countries, besides Spain, are England, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Italy. As you can see, the fascist countries of World War II continue on with that heritage of racism, sexism, machismo, and colonization, but I digress. Within the last 20 years, La Liga has had a huge problem with race. When a case of racism is caught on camera, or can be confirmed in some way or other by La Liga, they have no power to give a punishment, neither the club nor La Liga themselves. They must forward the case first to the Spanish authorities for them to choose to either investigate it more and take it to the courts, or to leave it alone and drop it. They have had 20 such instances that were high-profile news stories, including, most recently, several cases of racism against Real Madrid's Brazilian star forward Vinicius Jr. Towards the end of the 2022-2023 La Liga campaign, Vinicius Jr. had several racist acts against him. Spanish police are investigating an effigy of him in his number 20 jersey, hung from a bridge outside of Real's training ground, with a sign that read, Madrid hates Real. RFEF is investigating other accounts of racist chants and insults against Vinicius. On the 21st of May this year, in Valencia, Vinicius pointed out fans who were degrading him with verbal racist abuse. For Vinny, this was the last straw. After years of racism and bigotry, Vinicius Jr. called out La Liga and Spain for being racist. He released a statement via Twitter which read, It was not the first time, nor the second, nor the third. Racism is normal in La Liga. The competition considers it normal. The Federation considers it normal. And the rivals encourage it. The championship that once belonged to Ronaldinho, Rolando, Cristiano, and Messi, today belongs to the racists. A beautiful nation which welcomed me and which I love, but which accepted to export to the world the image of a racist country. I am sorry for those Spaniards who disagree, but today, in Brazil, Spain is known as a country of racists. And unfortunately, for everything that happens each week, I have no defense. I agree. But I am strong and I will fight to the end against racists, even if that is far away from here. A side note. Of the four players mentioned above, the first two are Brazilian, the third is Portuguese, and the last is Argentinian. The league itself is very popular in those places, in Argentina, Brazil. They recruit heavily from those countries. And they are, especially if they are of the brown persuasion, like most of Brazil is and only a tiny portion of Argentina is anymore, they are ridiculed or otherwise accosted. The same thing happens for players that they recruit from the African continent. If they come up, they are chanted very vile things at them. The RAF said that they will investigate what took place and take appropriate legal action. La Liga's president, Javier Tebas, on the other hand, took to Twitter and scolded Vinicius with a response which had hints of racism and colonialist anger. Since those who should explain to you, and this is aimed at Vinicius, to those who should explain to you what it is and what La Liga can do in cases of racism, we have tried to explain it ourselves. But you have not shown up for either of the two agreed dates that you requested yourself. Before you criticize and slander La Liga, you need to inform yourself properly, Vinicius Jr. Don't let yourself be manipulated and make sure you understand each other's competences and the work we have been doing together. To which Vinicius Jr. replied, once again, instead of criticizing racists, the president of La Liga shows up on social media to attack me. I am not your friend to talk with about racism. I want actions and punishments. Hashtags don't move me. Now we get to the crux of this story. The 2023 Women's World Cup, the winner, Spain's national women's team, and the RFEF president and UEFA vice president, Luis Rubiales. Let's get a little background on Luis Rubiales and women's football in Spain. No, I won't do a deep dive on the Robert Evans, just some notable facts. Okay. Women's football in Spain was officially recognized by the Royal Spanish Football Federation in 1980 after having been banned under the Franco dictatorship. The Spain's women's national football team subsequently played its first official match in 1983. After various attempts to call out abuse under the previous head coach Ignacio Carrera, a significant dispute involving the team broke out in 2022 over issues including the leadership of head coach Jorge Vilda with 15 players withdrawing from selection. That means that they didn't want to play for the team. The late 2010s and early 2020s also saw a number of high profile public debates over sexual violence in Spanish society with the government passing the only yes is yes law in 2022. With women having very few rights during the Franco dictatorship, feminism in Spain has experienced rapid growth since. Fourth wave feminism in Spain developed in the 1990s after the Spanish third wave feminism begun. During the transition to democracy, both waves coexisted for a time. Largely academic in its beginnings, the fourth wave movement gained momentum in wider society in 2018 with women's rights marches being well attended and laws protecting these rights being passed. In terms of laws protecting women's rights, the rapid progress made since about 2018 when the social democratic party PSOE regained power placed Spain ahead of most of the world. Fourth wave feminism in society and on social media emerged as a movement opposed to sexual violence, machismo and rape. Now on to Luis Rubiales. Luis played in La Liga starting in the youth academies in 1991 and played there for six years. He then spent most of his time in Segunda Division for 12 years with brief stints in the top tier Primera Division with Levante in 2004 and 2006 and retired from football in 2009. After his retirement, he took up a backroom role with Levante. In 2010, he was elected as the fifth president of the AFE until 2017 when he quit the post to run for office in the RFEF. In 2018, he was elected to the role of the 25th president of the RFEF. That same year, he was then elected to a vice president role in UEFA. In April of 2022, allegations of corruption came up after some documents and audio files were leaked to Spanish digital newspaper El Confidencial. In the audio files, there are conversations between Luis and Gerard Piquet, a Barcelona player and businessman. The audio files revealed that Rubiales was negotiating to pay Piquet commissions related to playing the Super Cup of Spain in Saudi Arabia. And the Super Cup of Spain is like their big championship. One of the conditions for these commissions was that two of the four teams would need to be Barcelona and Real Madrid because they are the two biggest teams in the country. This way, the both of them would benefit from these commissions. Also in 2022, Rubiales' uncle and former chief of staff, Juan Rubiales, accused Luis of embezzlement of RFEF money allegedly spent on private parties with a group of friends in a house in Solobrena in 2020. He has also been accused of using Federation resources for his personal enjoyment, such as a trip to New York in 2018 accompanied by a Mexican painter. Juan Rubiales also accused his nephew of devising an espionage scheme against AFE president David Agonza. So now let's talk about the 2023 Women's World Cup. So all of this takes us up to the 20th of August of this year. Spain won the 2023 Women's World Cup in Sydney, Australia. After the final whistle, Luis Rubiales was spotted grabbing his crotch while standing in the authorities' box near Spanish Queen Letizia and next to her 16-year-old daughter Infanta Sofia. On the pitch after the win, Rubiales lifted and carried player Athenia de Castillo over his shoulder. During the medal presentation, Rubiales forcibly kissed Spain's all-time top scorer Jenny Hermoso on the lips after grabbing her by the head with both hands. Hermoso said shortly afterwards that she did not expect it nor like the kiss when asked about why it happened to Spanish radio and television. And in a social media video recorded in the locker room saying I didn't like it then but what am I supposed to do? After this, Rubiales entered the player's locker room reportedly throwing his arm around Hermoso and joking about marrying her in Ibiza. The kiss was considered the main incident due to its nature and because it was captured by the cameras on FIFA's official coverage as part of the live broadcast. Rubiales was immediately heavily criticized by people from around the world. Besides considering the kiss both a form of sexual violence and an abuse of power, people in women's football and in Spanish society saw it as a reflection of persistent patriarchy in sports. A field where respect for women is considered harder to obtain. Sports journalists quickly denounced Rubiales' pattern of behavior. El Confidencial's Alberto Ortega also noted Rubiales took the trophy of the players to celebrate with it and soon after his responses with the Daily Mirror's Colin Millar saying Rubiales' attempts to excuse and normalize his behavior were further troubling. Former Australia men's footballer Craig Foster spoke out soon after the kiss tweeting that FIFA and the RFEF should remove Rubiales and expressing his outrage that quote women in sport are daily subject to an extreme power differential. objectification, harassment, sexual abuse and an absence of agency and power. Following Rubiales' speech later on, Foster also called on all members of the Spain men's national team to join the women's team in striking. Other women's football players from around the world spoke out in support for Hermoso both individually and collectively. The England women's team who faced Spain in the final issued a statement of support and players of the National Women's Soccer League wore wristbands with supportive messages on it. In a lightning strike of irony, even Woody Allen came out in support of Rubiales saying in Venice no wait for it saying in Venice quote it was only a kiss and that public affection did not deserve to be punished. It's not public affection, Woody Allen. God. Oh yeah, he's good. It's an assault. Yeah, he can't help himself, Ted. He can't help himself. He wasn't himself. Unbelievable. All right. So having initially described his critics as idiots, dickheads and losers and initially calling the incident an unimportant gesture of affection on a Spanish radio show before leaving Australia, Rubiales published an apology video on 21st of August recorded while the delegation was on a layover returning from Australia. In it, he described the kiss as spontaneous and said that he had no bad intentions and was sorry for distracting from the celebration saying I have to apologize, learn from this and understand that when you are president you have to be more careful. He didn't realize he had to be responsible as president of the RFEF or a vice president of one of many of UEFA. And it's just like the repeated like it was just a kiss or it was just a sign of affection or whatever. It's like that's not the point, though. Yeah. The point is you did it when they were not able to stop you. Right. Especially because the cameras were around and rolling and your queen is in the stands. Yeah. Yeah. You're kind of under the radar or over the radar. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that Rubiales' behavior was unacceptable. The apology was not adequate, let alone sufficient, saying, quote, the players did everything to win, but Rubiales' behavior shows that there still is a long way to go for equality. Labor Minister and Second Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Diaz called for Rubiales' resignation. Irene Montero, the equalities minister, said the kiss was an everyday form of sexual violence that women need to be protected from. And Sports Minister Miguel Iceta also condemning it. Beyond the cabinet, political parties of all alignments criticized Rubiales. And Adrian Barbón, the president of the Principality of Asturias, said the kiss was an abuse that neither the moment nor the euphoria nor the joy justifies. The Association of Spanish Footballers, which is the union for the footballers, issued an official communique stating that if Rubiales did not resign immediately, they would demand that the Ley de Deportes, a section on punishable conduct, be applied. The Union General de Trabajadores, there we go, I can say that word, likewise called for resignation. And the UGT is like, they're the big union, like along the lines of the CAI and all that stuff. I think I did that wrong, not CAI. But either way, it's a big workers' union in the country, the biggest. It was revealed on 22nd August that Rubiales had begged Hermoso to appear with him in the apology video, and that manager Jorge Vilda, the coach of the team, unsuccessfully asked Hermoso's family several times to encourage her to support Rubiales. Team captain Ivana Andres had also been asked to appear in the video. The RFEF considered her one of the players who saw them more positively and so maybe more likely to comply, and hoped her presence would be interpreted as being on behalf of the whole squad. Andres refused, later saying Rubiales was wrong. When Hermoso did not agree to the video, the RFEF sent a false statement in her name, downplaying the incident to Spanish press agency EFE. Hermoso issued a statement through her union, FUTPRO, saying that the union and her agency would represent her interests. FUTPRO released a statement saying that they were working on seeing Rubiales's act punished and sought to see women footballers protected from actions that we believe are unacceptable. The RFEF threatened legal action against FUTPRO in response. On 24th August, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee opened disciplinary proceedings against Rubiales. The RFEF called an extraordinary general meeting for 25th August. Although Rubiales leaked to his close circle and the press that he would be resigning during the meeting, he instead recanted his words and vehemently refused to stand down. The speech was notably erratic. Only the next day, público journalist Esther Rebolo wrote in an article that she would not repeat the phrases that Rubiales used to defend himself, because rivers of ink have already been written about his unsportsmanlike, antisocial, ultra-sexist, and even legally condemnable attitude. Goal, which is a local football paper there, described it as career suicide. Wow. Rubiales had brought his three daughters to the RFEF assembly. He pointed them out, with part of his speech being delivered to them, saying you, his daughters, have to differentiate between truth and lies, and I tell the truth. He also addressed Vilda, saying that he would offer him a new four-year contract worth 2 million euro At another point, Rubiales repeated I am not going to resign five times, compared to the I'm not leaving speech from the Wolf of Wall Street. In the speech, he referred to his kiss instead as a peck, also saying it was euphoric. He spent time storytelling his version of events from the final, claiming to have had a full conversation with Ramoso and received her consent, though he continued to describe the kiss as spontaneous. Other topics he postulated about in the speech were the rise of what he called, quote-unquote, fake feminism, and how he saw it as the scourge of society and the imprudence of the Spanish government, saying he would sue several ministers. The speech was met with a standing ovation from the men in the hall, who were criticized for this response. Also present were female members of coaching staff, who had been made to both attend and sit in the front row to give the impression that Rubiales had support for women. The staff gave a statement afterwards, criticizing this. I believe they said something along the lines of, we weren't told about this, you know, this was, this is bullshit. Right. Minus the this was bullshit part, because they're polite people. Rabono felt that Rubiales' attacks on women and support of his male colleagues in the speech was a key point in causing male onlookers across Spain and the world to be embarrassed, hurt, and angry, and to embrace support of hermoso, the women's team, and ultimately feminism. Sports media consumed by male football fans also generally criticized Rubiales. Sports journalists, particularly those familiar with Spanish women's football, responded to the speech by placing it and Rubiales within the systematic issue that Spain and other women's teams face. Relay of journalists, Alex Ibaceta lamented in The Guardian that it took a World Cup victory for the team to receive enough attention that Rubiales simply being himself on camera could give a taste to the world of what has been going on behind the scenes for decades at the Spanish Federation. In response to the speech, two Spanish men's national team and Real Betis players, Hector Bellerin and Borja Iglesias, publicly denounced Rubiales on social media, with the latter also refusing to play for Spain until Rubiales resigned. Two former Spain national goalkeepers, David Dahia and 2010 World Cup winner Eichar Casillas, also criticized Rubiales' speech on Twitter. Spain is currently bidding to co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup. Following the speech, it was widely understood that they would not be awarded the tournament with Rubiales in charge. Players' Union, FIFA Pro, having already called for action against Rubiales, published a further statement in support of Hermoso and denouncing Rubiales, which was shared by many players. Beatriz Alvarez, the president of Spain's Liga X, told RTVE that Rubiales' ego is above his dignity, but she was still shocked by the speech and how every time he speaks, he shows what kind of person he really is. Hermoso plays club football in Mexico, in the Liga MX Femenil, with many of these clubs announcing their support. The Spain national team sponsors, Iberia and Iberdola, also issued statements criticizing Rubiales' actions. The first female football player to respond to the speech was Alexia Putelas, Spain's most capped women's international, which means that they've been capped to play for the women's national team a bunch of times, that's what capped means. Women's international is the most decorated individual women's footballer in the world. She tweeted, and I apologize, Translated, this is unacceptable, it's over. With you, teammate Jenny Hermoso. This was followed by an influx of similar expressions on social media from women's footballers around the world. Influenced by the speech, former, current and eligible players for the Spain women's team organized in a WhatsApp group, choosing to challenge the RFEF. Later that day, 81 players, including all 23 women's world cup winning squad, released a joint statement to boycott the national team until the RFEF changes leadership. Hermoso followed up the joint statement on 25th August with a full personal statement later that day, accounting her experience of the incidents, as well as mentioning previous and ongoing abuses in the environment of the national squad. Most of the coaching staff to the women's national teams, not including senior team manager and Rubiales' ally Vilda, resigned en masse on 26th August in protest of Rubiales' conduct. In an interview with El Confidencial published on 30th August, his uncle and former colleague Juan Rubiales described Luis as someone obsessed with power, luxury, money and women, adding that the latter's behavior was embarrassing and that he needed a social re-education program. He don't like nephew. No, he doesn't. I mean, especially to send him to a re-education program. Yeah, for real. On 1st September, a Spanish sports court opened an administrative investigation into Rubiales. However, the probe was filed as a serious misconduct, not a very serious misconduct, which blocked the Spanish government from suspending him as head of the RFEF pending the investigation and potentially allowed his return to RFEF's presidency when FIFA's 90-day provisional suspension ended. On 2nd September, Sanchez, who is the head of the AFE, praised the team for the boycott, saying that they had won twice, first the World Cup, and then by giving the world a lesson in equality. After the coaching staff of the Spain women's national team resigned, Vilda's position as coach became clearly untenable. He was fired on 5th September, and on 7th September he threatened legal action against RFEF, saying he considered Rubiales' renewal offer during the 25th August speech to be a legal agreement. Vilda's assistant coach Montserrat Tomé, who had resigned, was appointed the new head coach after Vilda got fired, and is the first woman to hold the position. On 22nd August, the Spanish domestic women's league Liga F filed a complaint with the government sports council Consejo Superior de Deportes, asking for Rubiales' dismissal and describing him as an unprecedented international embarrassment. The Spanish government said they would seek Rubiales' dismissal if he did not resign on 25th August, due to Rubiales' speech in which he said he would not step down. The Spanish government filed a complaint in the sports administrative court for serious misconduct with the aim of obtaining authorization to suspend him from his duties. After a preliminary investigation, the TAD decided on 1st September, which is the sports administrative court, Rubiales' misconduct was serious, but not very serious. He would not be immediately removed from the office, with the TAD deciding to open a full investigation of Rubiales. In response, Rubiales shared an explosive, quote-unquote, letter on Twitter saying that he had already proven his innocence through RFEF communiques calling Hermoso a liar, and would prove the truth, as well as claiming that he was advancing feminism and saying he felt that the media were lynching him by marginalizing him in their reporting. The TAD investigation was suspended on 8th September, when the original complaint was filed to allow for the higher court to investigate first. On the 26th of August, two days after their investigation, FIFA suspended Rubiales until the 24th of November. Rubiales was a vice president of European football governing body UEFA at the time, and a friend of its president, Alexander Schifferin. I had to write down the proper way to say that because it's got one of those little signs above the C, so I knew I was going to fuck it up. The RFEF requested that UEFA suspend the RFEF due to what it called government interference after the government referred Rubiales to the TAD. If UEFA had done so, it would prevent Spanish national teams and club teams from participating in the European Championship and Champions League, among other tournaments. The self-sabotage was said to highlight how irreparably deep the RFEF's loyalty to Rubiales was. Despite increasing pressure to comment on Rubiales and open its own investigation, neither UEFA as an organization or any of its representatives did so publicly until the UEFA ceremony on 31st August. Schifferin spoke only to L'Equipe, again totally destroying French, and said only that UEFA felt no need to deal with the matter as FIFA was already doing so. He also said that he thought Rubiales had been inappropriate, this description was considered weak, especially considering how unequivocal Schifferin had been in criticizing Andre Agnelli for organizing the European Super League. It was reported in the Atlantic that privately, however, UEFA officials were very displeased by Rubiales and that they considered his speech so serious that they would not quietly find him a job elsewhere in the game. Finally, on 10th September, Rubiales resigned. In a preview clip for the British talk show Piers Morgan, Uncensored was released, with Rubiales being interviewed by the lousy, dark-hearted broadcaster. Sorry, I just had to hit below the belt. That's funny. In it, Rubiales said he had offered his resignation to the REF. Shortly after the clip, Rubiales shared a statement saying he had resigned from the positions in the REF and UEFA. The written statement did not include an apology or suggestion of wrongdoing, and did not mention Hermosa or the women's team. Considered in keeping with Rubiales' attitude, it did feature various explanations for the resignation, including saying his daughters were suffering. He described his daughter's father and friends, telling him to focus on his dignity and to continue his life. He also wrote that he did not want Spanish football to suffer because of him, only invoking the 2030 men's World Cup bid. Ibaseta wrote that it was clear Rubiales was only concerned with how his presence or absence would affect men's football, and that he alluded to only agreeing to resign if the Federation does not significantly change from his plans for it. The prosecution ministry opened preliminary investigation into whether Rubiales' actions constituted sexual assault on 28 August, including offering Hermosa the opportunity to make a formal complaint. She did this on 6 September. On 8 September, the prosecutors presented a criminal complaint to the national court asking for investigation into charges of sexual assault and coercion. It also asked for information to be gathered from Australian authorities. So it kind of sounds like as long as they get visual proof, I guess like some kind of substantive evidence, then they'll go ahead and file the complaint and file legal action against Rubiales. Like I said at the beginning, this is really convoluted the way that Spanish football handles these complaints. Because the clubs can't do anything. The Royal Federation of Football can do something by moving this to the judicial department of the federal government, quote unquote, because that's not necessarily how it's set up in Spain. Who then they get to decide if they're going to press charges or file a complaint or anything like that. And once that goes through the courts, then the clubs can finally do something. Or in this instance, the RFEF can do something. Which I don't know if that's better because it does keep the club's decisions out of everything. You know what I'm saying? But at the same time, it just really elongates the process any kind of justice. It really does. So it's very consistent to see, when you see the racism coming on the pitch for the clubs to say, we've moved this on. We can't do nothing with it, but we've already petitioned to have this looked at. We can't do anything until we get that petition back. Right. And as myself as a fan and an observer, like I said, cool, the clubs get to keep their noses clean and not have any kind of persuasion on the outcome. But yeah, it's like you have to wait until something finally happens. We still don't have an end to the effigy that was hung of Vinicius Jr. Right. And that was last season. I mean, I know the season ended in 2023, but that was May of this year. Yeah. And it's September. Yeah. And Real Madrid has positioned the higher-ups. That's all they can do. Right. And it's just like in limbo. Yeah. And to know that there's a very good possibility the reason why that's still hung up is because of Rubiales, possibly, even though he is a fan of Real Madrid, but the way that he's handled everything else, how can you say this is going to turn out good? Exactly. Especially with the other member of the RFEF going after Vinicius on Twitter saying, well, you never came to the meetings that you wanted, and then you pretend like you know what's best for us? Right. Right. Like, come on. Yeah. So the only thing that has really, anything good that has really come out of this is the Sayacabó movement. Currently, there is a wider movement starting towards anti-sexual violence, anti-marxismo, and pro-women's equity movement in society and sports developed out of the Rubiales affair. Based on a tweet from Alexia Putelas, the movement is known by its hashtag Sayacabó. Sayacabó in Spanish, Sayacabat in Catalan, which I know I butchered, and Acabús in Galician, and it's over in English. The Catalan and the Galician, they're two parts of Spain as well. But the Catalan part of the country is still trying to get out of the Spanish government as well as the Galician part of Spain. Yeah. With the Spain women's football players hoping to see their collective voice to force systemic change in the RFEF to make it less sexist and more equitable for women in football. Sayacabó additionally became an outlet for women in Spain to speak up about sexual harassment and everyday sexism they experienced. It became a movement focused on preventing sexual violence committed by powerful men and abusive bosses. With academic Marta Soler-Gallart writing in the conversation that it could help denormalize sexual violence and the social isolation of victims. Other commenters defined Sayacabó in contrast to the MeToo movement. Journalists for El País wrote that the focus of Sayacabó was to expose less obvious everyday sexism that demonstrates gender dominance in society. While feminist writer Cristina Sallanes told the NOS that Sayacabó was not unheard victims speaking out, but survivors who want to show the world that this should never happen again. The sports journalist Esperanza Talaguer felt that Sayacabó as a phrase is powerful, that MeToo was very much necessary, but now we have to be more decisive. The MeToo movement had not had lasting effects in Spain and though the hashtag suentado, literally tell it, was used after the landmark La Mañana rape case decided in 2018, this was always more popular in Latin America than Spain. With growing feminism and the fallout of the La Mañana case, Spain reformed its consent laws in 2022 to not assume consent by default. Global media considered Sayacabó Spain's own MeToo. The hashtag Sayacabó had begun trending on Twitter on 26 August. Patricia Moreno Barbera of Vogue opined that it made sense for Spain's movement to come from football, which she wrote has a similar presence in Spanish society as Hollywood does in the United States. Given a platform with Sayacabó, women across Spain spoke up about the micromachismos they experienced within professional environment. Micromachismos are seen as a normalized form of gender dominance, things that women are expected to put up with in the workplace, but which can have negative effects on their careers and cause psychological harm. Among the female professionals denouncing this form of abuse were female sports journalists in Spain, many of whom wrote about an inability of sports media to expose machismo in women's sports because it was normalized by their male colleagues. Signs of support for Hermoso under the Sayacabó banner were held up by football teams, both women's and men's, and their fans during matches, and there were protests held by feminist groups across Spain in the days following Rubiales' speech. A protest in Callao Square, the center of Madrid, on 28th August was attended by around 800 people shutting down the area. A day of action was called for on the 1st September by feminist groups in Spain. A further statement of support from FIFA Pro was released on this day and shared on social media by past and present footballers There were protests in cities across Spain and the local made Sayacabó its Spanish words of the day. While Rubiales had initially retained support in his hometown of Botril, with a few dozen counter-protesters showing support for him while his mother was on hunger strike, which was very funny, a feminist protest against him took place there on 1st September. This protest was live-streamed. The thing with his mom going on hunger strike is that she went into the local cathedral and locked herself in. Okay. Yeah. Okay, ma'am. Yeah. And then would come out and say stuff that mothers say about their little boy being shamed nationally and internationally. Right. And then after the judge sent down that he wasn't allowed to say anything to the Spanish women's team or even call out Hermoso herself anymore, one of his cousins came out in support of him and started defending him about it. And she would come to the cathedral where his mother was going on this hunger strike and at one point was quote-unquote close to death. Yeah, okay. Yeah. It was something like four days after it started. She was already close to death. Okay. Yeah. So she's either got something really wrong with her, like diabetes or something, or we'll go from there. So yeah, that was pretty funny. During the UEFA ceremony on 31st August when the major UEFA football awards were awarded, both Atiana Bonmati of Spain, winner of the UEFA Women's Player of the Year Award, and Serena Wegman, manager of England, Spain's opponents in the World Cup final and winner of the UEFA Women's Coach of the Year Award, dedicated their awards to Hermoso and spoke about stopping abuse in women's football. After accepting her award, Wegman put it on the ground to instead lead a round of applause for the Spanish players. Bonmati's acceptance speech was more directly critical of Rubiales than Wegman's and she had not told UEFA what she would say beforehand. The presenters asked her before she went on stage whether she would speak English or Spanish and if she wanted them to ask her about Rubiales, to which she replied that she had something she wanted to say. Bonmati spoke in English for all of the ceremony except when talking about Rubiales, both on stage and in the press room. This was seen as her choosing to address these comments for an exclusive Spanish audience. So that people in Spain would understand her as she showed that she was not backing down. The end. Dang. So, yeah, he's out of UEFA and as the head of Spanish football. Wow. Fuck around. Find out. Yep. And it really sticks because I know that things like sexism, especially racism, are like a huge issue in soccer. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I know that some of these team fans' chants are really not cool. No. No, especially some of the movements they make. They are rather, oh, minstrel-y. I think that's a good word. Yes. Yes. What's crazy, though, is like of the big four, which would be Italy, Spain, England, and Germany, the worst league, the absolute worst one, is Italy. And I would not even know how to begin to start on that one because it's just a constant thing there, especially because of their World War II involvement in Africa, bringing slaves over and shit, because that's what they did even during World War II. Right. As long as you are brown or darker, you are not accepted. And it's very hard, even in the public of Italy, to be accepted as somebody when you're walking around. And it's even harder, well, it's a little bit easier when you're a footballer, but then you've got the supporters who will very easily, especially if you're a person of color, will very easily flip on you. Yeah. It kind of goes along with that whole like, we don't like people of color unless they're winning championships for us. Yeah. And we see that also a lot with NFL because you have like people in the South that are racist as hell, but then if their football team has black players that are doing good, then they're all about them. Yeah. Even in college football, I mean, Alabama's a good, you know, fucking with that as well. Mm-hmm. Goddamn. It's between Alabama and LSU, man, you know? It's like, who's going to win this? Right. So, yeah, no, it's terrifying. And if I were a different pigment, if I had more melanin in my body, I would just choose not to go. I would seriously, I'd rather go to England or Germany because at least they're, I'm not going to say they've got a handle on it because that's far from being true, but they handle it better. And there's even talk in England right now of changing the rules put forth by the Football Association, the FA, which handles all of the rules and everything for the Premier League and all the lower leagues to make it that if a person or a larger group is caught doing these things, in the stands, that the team who these supporters are for or who this person is for, not only will they be kicked out of the pitch permanently, and it would be both pitches, home and if they're at an away pitch and they did it, they wouldn't be able to attend a game there either, but also to monetarily fine the team. Yeah. And I think that's a good idea. I think that's a better way of handling it because you are now hurting the team financially. As a supporter, you do this shit, you are now hurting the team financially. That one's really going to go from bottom up because you have all your local city and village teams and stuff like that, and they have a small team and they have a small stadium in the center of town, and those fines and consequences are really going to hurt those smaller teams, and then hopefully it'll go up from there. Yeah. That's really the only way it would go. Yeah. So, exciting times. The country of Spain, for being what it is, especially so soon after the fucking dictatorship, they are legitimately handling this excellently. Not the damn fucking RFEF, no, but the public and the government. They're actually supporting this player, supporting the team, and they're showing out for it. Yeah. So, fuck yeah, Spain, Spanish people, fucking do it. Get after it.