Spanish football boss Luis Rubiales called out for kissing player on lips in post-World Cup final celebrations

As Spain celebrated a maiden Women’s World Cup triumph one official may have taken it too far after footage of him kissing Spanish midfielder Jenni Hermoso sparked outrage on social media.

As players made their way on stage to receive their winner’s medals vision shows Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) president Luis Rubiales grabbing the back of Hermoso’s head and kissing her on the lips and lifting her off her feet in a bear hug.

In a live stream on her Instagram post-ceremony Hermoso said “I didn’t like it” in reference to the kiss however later played down the incident in later comments.

“It was a totally spontaneous mutual gesture because of the immense joy that winning a World Cup brings,” Hermoso said.

“The president and I have a great relationship, his behaviour with all of us has been outstanding and it was a natural gesture of affection and gratitude.

“A gesture of friendship and gratitude cannot be gone over so much, we have won a World Cup and we are not going to deviate from what is important.”

This hasn’t stopped fans from calling out the “weird” behaviour with footage of him kissing another player on the cheek also emerging.

One user called out the trivialising of the incident as sexism.

“In this country, and I’m Spanish, it’s also disgusting sexism to kiss a woman without her consent. Disgusting. Do not (trivialise),” they wrote.

Another posted: “The way the Spanish federation doesn’t even try to hide their abuse... I’m so sick of these federations getting away with this.”

Rubiales defended his actions when speaking on Spanish radio station MARCA.

“The kiss with Jenni? Idiots are everywhere,” he said in response to the criticism.

“When two people have an unimportant gesture of affection, we can’t listen to idiocy”.

The controversy comes after several top stars formed part of a 15-player protest against the national team ahead of the tournament, due to the federation and coach Jorge Vilda’s relationship with the players.

Rubiales was a firm backer of Vilda and the RFEF was criticised for their strong position against the 15 protesting players though most eventually relented and were included in this tournament.