Luis Rubiales, the embattled Spanish football chief, has bowed to the seemingly inevitable and resigned from both his positions as president of the Spanish football federation and UEFA vice president. He made the announcement during an interview with Piers Morgan on TalkTV and then confirmed his decision in a subsequent statement for the press.
Rubiales had been suspended for 90 days by Fifa following the now infamous kiss with Spanish captain Jenni Hermoso (which he says was consensual and she says wasn’t) at the medal ceremony after his country’s triumph in the Women’s World Cup final last month. ‘I cannot continue my work,’ he told Morgan, adding that ‘insisting on waiting and holding on is not going to contribute to anything positive, neither to the federation nor to Spanish football.’
No one would dispute that Rubiales behaved inappropriately, boorishly, at the World Cup final
There was no hint of contrition in Rubiales’ announcement – at least in the portion of the interview which has been released (it will be broadcast tomorrow in full).
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