Spain’s women deserved their World Cup triumph – but deserve better than the men who surround them

Spain’s richly deserved triumph in Sunday’s Women’s World Cup final should have been celebrated by images of joy and jubilation – a nation who had never previously reached a major final establishing themselves as the best in the world after a superb display of controlled aggression, tactical discipline and technical excellence. Instead, back pages around the world feature a man forcing a kiss on an unsuspecting player, and of a coach alienated from many members of his own squad. Spanish superiority on the field was only half of the story of their tournament, a truth which is very cruel to the players.

It is grotesquely unfair that the presentation ceremony will not be remembered for the trophy lift but for RFEF President Luis Rubiales shoving his lips onto Jennifer Hermoso’s without any evident invitation – with Hermoso saying on a dressing room livestream that she “didn’t like it”, not long before Rubiales entered the dressing room and announced that he wanted to marry Hermoso. He also kissed goalscorer Olga Carmona on the cheek shortly after, again without apparent invitation. Further footage appears to show him grabbing his crotch in an obscene gesture while sat next to Queen Letizia of Spain and her daughter in the stands just beforehand.

A statement put out by the RFEF on behalf of Hermoso shortly after all this occurred described it as a “spontaneous and mutual gesture because of the immense joy”, although given her vocalised distaste for the event one has to assume that she was presented with the statement and asked to sign off to avoid further controversy. Not that it succeeded.

The backlash in Spain and elsewhere has been severe, with the caretaker Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, saying that it represented the “sexual violence that we women suffer on a daily basis” and Nadia Tronchoni, the lead sports writer at Spanish daily El País describing it as “an intrusion, an invasion of one’s personal space, without consent, an aggression.”

Rubiales himself meanwhile, has demonstrated a total absence of shame - which is par for the course with the governing bodies of Spanish football, which have demonstrated on many occasions that they have no great interest in clamping down on misogyny or racism. He described those criticising him as “idiots and stupid people” who could be ignored, either oblivious or disinterested in the fact that this group included prominent female journalists and government ministers, among a great many others.

The incident is just another example of the entitlement many men feel they have to women’s space, bodies and moments of celebration. This was not Rubiales’ time to do anything other than smile and applaud, but he had to take it further and force himself into the frame – not unlike Gianni Infantino during the equivalent men’s ceremony in Qatar, when he inserted himself into the trophy lift and into every photograph possible as though the moment belonged to him. But Rubiales’ transgression was more egregious, a violation of personal rights as well as an ego-driven intrusion into the narrative of the day.

And if only that was the only sexism that the players had to deal with this tournament. All of this came just a couple of days after Infantino, the President of FIFA, gave an extraordinary press conference during which he found countless ways to insult women in the game who were upset about the pay and funding gaps between the men’s and women’s games. It speaks some volumes as to how the endless trudge of controversy affects the players that Alexia Putellas’ post-match comments, just after winning the World Cup, were to criticise FIFA over pay and their reaction to player frustration and to say that she has “lost some of my romanticism” around the game. If those were among her first feelings after becoming a world champion, it says a lot about the weight FIFA’s misogyny and incompetence creates.

And lest we forget, this is a team which, just a year ago, mutinied against their male head coach, Jorge Vilda, over a range of issues which included the tactical and technical but also incorporated allegations of inappropriate and controlling behaviour, an example of which was refusing to allow players to lock their doors in the team hotel until he had conducted a personal room-by-room inspection. There was no internal investigation and his removal was never likely – the man who runs the women’s football department in the RFEF is Vilda’s father.

15 players took part in the mutiny, only three of whom were present in Sydney. Four others were approached to be selected but declined, including Mapi León, one of the best defenders in the world. Other players, including reigning Ballon d’Or holder Alexia, supported the strike but did not take part. The result is a squad divided, with many players still visibly opposed to Vilda – hence the pictures showing staff and players celebrating separately, and the moment in the semi-final against Sweden when Alexia slapped her manager’s proffered hand away after being substituted.

While many players clearly have precious little time for Vilda, he does have supporters in the dressing room, including those who have benefited from the absence of the mutineers but especially among the Real Madrid contingent – no Real players went on strike in 2022 and seven of the 15 played for Barcelona (One Batlle, who played for Manchester United at the time, makes it eight). There have been reports of rifts between factions from the two clubs disrupting training, an issue that has blighted many Spanish national teams in the past.

Frankly, it’s astonishing that Spain won this tournament under such circumstances, and a testament to their quality and resolve that they became champions of the world when most teams would have folded under the combined weight of infighting, disenchantment and lack of support from their paymasters, both at the RFEF and at FIFA, even if the latter is an issue that affects the entire women’s game.

But they did win, in spite of everything and the best efforts of England. They outplayed the Lionesses and became champions of the world. They are a brilliant team, richly blessed with talent, who came together to form an even greater whole on the field in spite of all the pressures and differences off it. That should be the way we remember Sunday’s match – instead, images of Rubiales forcing his lips onto Hermoso’s and Vilda being ignored by his own players will stand alongside the shots of celebration, and the unpleasant actions of men have somehow stolen a substantial part of the show once more. Wouldn’t it be nice if women could take the limelight on their own for once, without male-led controversy as an accompaniment? Maybe in four years’ time.