{"id":325338,"date":"2023-08-22T21:09:14","date_gmt":"2023-08-22T21:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=325338"},"modified":"2023-08-22T21:59:03","modified_gmt":"2023-08-22T21:59:03","slug":"prime-minister-blasts-unacceptable-kiss-apology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=325338","title":{"rendered":"Prime minister blasts 'unacceptable' kiss apology"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez said the apologies offered by Luis Rubiales, president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), for giving Spain midfielder Jennifer Hermoso an unwanted kiss<\/a> on the lips are "not enough".<\/p>\n

Amid widespread criticism of the incident, including from the Association of Spanish Footballers (AFE), S\u00e1nchez answered questions from reporters and said that "what we saw was an unacceptable gesture".<\/p>\n

"Regarding Mr Rubiales and all the controversy that has taken place, in the first place I believe that they, the players, they have done everything to win," S\u00e1nchez said.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Unfair' moment Australia turned on jiggling Jenneke<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Abusive': Spain football hammered for 'gross' post<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Gallen rips Manly for baffling $2.4m decision<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"But it is true that there has been some behaviour, in this case of Mr Rubiales, which shows that in our country there is still a long way to go in terms of equality and respect and in this equalisation of rights between women and men.<\/p>\n

"The apologies made by Mr Rubiales are not enough. I even think that they are not appropriate and that, therefore, Mr Rubiales needs to continue to take steps to clarify what we all saw," added S\u00e1nchez.<\/p>\n

\"Spain<\/p>\n

Rubiales and S\u00e1nchez met earlier on Tuesday and shook hands when the Spain squad visited the Moncloa Palace \u2013 the Spanish prime minister's residence \u2013 to receive the Gold Medal of the Royal Order of Sports Merit.<\/p>\n

"The president of the federation is chosen, or fired, by the federation's members," S\u00e1nchez added in response to a question about whether he would look to remove Rubiales from his post.<\/p>\n

"I've already said in my first response to your colleagues, that his explanation was insufficient, that Mr Rubiales has to take more steps to clear up his behaviour, which in any light, is unacceptable.<\/p>\n

"It doesn't connect with the majority sentiment of the citizenry, which clearly bets on equality between men and women and which, logically, well we've seen his statements of apology, which I don't know if you've all seen it, but I think that they're insufficient."<\/p>\n

CNN has reached out to the RFEF for comment on S\u00e1nchez's remarks but did not hear back by the time of publication.<\/p>\n

\"Spain's<\/p>\n

Earlier, Rubiales admitted he "made a mistake" by giving Hermoso a kiss on the lips after the 33-year-old had collected her winners' medal following the Women's World Cup final victory over England.<\/p>\n

Rubiales has faced widespread criticism for the incident, with his behavior labeled "unacceptable" and "simply disgusting".<\/p>\n

"Hey, I didn't like it, eh," Hermoso said as she apparently answered questions about the incident in an Instagram live video, a clip of which was shared by Spanish journalist Irati Vida on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.<\/p>\n

Later in the Instagram live video \u2013 taken in Spain's locker room \u2013 Hermoso fields a question from another woman: "But what were you doing, sis?" The 33-year-old replies: "But what am I supposed to do?".<\/p>\n

On the radio program 'El Tiempo de Juego' on Cadena COPE, Hermoso spoke of the kiss on Sunday, saying "she didn't expect it" but that "it was because of the emotion of the moment, there's nothing more there. It's just going to be an anecdote [of the time]. I'm absolutely sure it won't be blown up more".<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Acting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez said the apologies offered by Luis Rubiales, president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), for giving Spain midfielder […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":324909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325338"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=325338"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325342,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325338\/revisions\/325342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/324909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=325338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=325338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=325338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}