Spanish FA president Luis Rubiales has been provisionally suspended by Fifa following his conduct at the women’s World Cup final in Sydney last weekend.
Rubiales has refused to resign from his post after kissing Jenni Hermoso – who has stressed she did not consent – on the lips, prompting Fifa to step in.
A Fifa statement said: “The chairman of the Fifa Disciplinary Committee, Jorge Ivan Palacio (Colombia), in use of the powers granted by article 51 of the Fifa Disciplinary Code (FDC), has decided today to provisionally suspend Mr. Luis Rubiales from all football-related activities at national and international level.
I honestly would’ve thought this was European culture one step removed from two kisses on the cheeks as a greeting. Though I’m curious if that is still common, especially “post” covid.
No, he’s just been a creepy creep.
It’s like when everyone says cheers and tap your drink glasses together. It’s a culture that’s grown up out of something else. Originally the idea was that you would get a bit of your drink into their drink, which worked fine when everyone had the same drink. The idea was you were proving the drink couldn’t have been poisoned because you would be drinking the poison too, so it’s fine for everyone to relax and have a good time. That’s grew into just gently touching glasses together.
The kissing thing is the same. Originally yes, you actually kissed them (like 150 years ago) but now you just sort of put your faces near each other. You don’t actually make contact.
So it’s not really a defence.