“I’m going to keep fighting,” said Luis Rubiales with characteristic vehemence.
“But I’ve been working a long time without a holiday, and I need to rest too. So after this assembly, I’m going to spend some days with my mother, my sister, and my niece. With my daughters. And I hope to be able to disconnect. I’ll be in Motril.”
This was how Rubiales ended his astonishing speech at the Spanish Football Association (RFEF) headquarters near Madrid last Friday.
Rubiales had been expected to resign as RFEF president, following the uproar within Spain and internationally caused by his planting a kiss on the lips of Spain forward Jenni Hermoso during the presentation ceremony after she and her team-mates won the Women’s World Cup final the previous Sunday.
But instead, he used his speech a few days later to present himself as a victim of an orchestrated campaign to oust him, in which he claimed Hermoso was now playing a part.
By the time FIFA, world football’s governing body, acted by temporarily suspending Rubiales from all football activities for 90 days this past Saturday, Rubiales was already in Motril, his hometown on Spain’s south coast.
For months, the 46-year-old former full-back had planned to again pull on the blue and white Motril CF shirt, where he began…
