Current affairs often provide excellent and relevant content and as a sports lover, it is simply impossible for me to overlook the fiasco that Spanish football has been engulfed in since Spain’s Women beat England Women to win a richly deserved first World Cup last Sunday.
What should have been a week of celebration and glorious reflection has instead been dominated by the selfishness, arrogance and total lack of emotional intelligence of one man, about-to-be-ex-President of the Spanish Football Association (RFEF); Luis Rubiales.
In summary for those that are not familiar with what happened, when presenting one of the players, Jenni Hermosa, her winners medal – Rubiales grabbed her by the back of the head and kissed her on the lips. This is clearly as unacceptable as it was shocking, and much has been and will continue to be written about it in relation to gender equality, sexual aggression, institutional bias etc. What I will focus on in today’s blog however is not so much the action – there are so many already doing this, but Rubiales response once the fallout started.
The reaction from players (male and female), media and now Spain’s political elite who are involved in removing Rubiales from his post, has been rightly unified in its condemnation of his actions. All the women’s team and all coaching staff except the manager have resigned their positions and refuse to play for Spain again until changes are made. Some male players have taken a stance of solidarity with their female counterparts and refused to play for the men’s team until Rubiales is gone.
This mess which has tarnished a wonderful victory would not be happening if Rubiales had dealt with the fallout differently and this is what I want to discuss.
His initial reaction when people criticised the kiss as inappropriate, and a violation of women’s rights was to call everyone “idiots.” A few days later apologised for his actions however, by then it was seen as too little too late. On Friday, 5 days after the initial incident, an ‘extraordinary general assembly’ of the RFEF was called where Rubiales was widely expected to announce his resignation. Instead, he doubled down claiming that he was the victim of a “manhunt” and that he would “never resign!”.
Let’s now assume that instead of call everyone idiots, he realised that he had made a mistake and immediately addressed it. Let’s assume that rather than playing an ego-driven chauvinist he showed genuine remorse and offered his resignation if that was the will of the players (both men and women). It may not have saved his position, but it would likely have saved his dignity and reputation which are now in tatters.
Everyone makes mistakes and no one is perfect. Spain is a Catholic country and forgiveness is at the core of the Catholic religion. Just maybe, if he had demonstrated emotional intelligence and shown genuine remorse and empathised not only with Ms. Hermosa, but with the many other men and women who feel aggrieved by such actions, he would have been able to use his mistake to create positive change across the RFEF. Instead, he missed this opportunity which is not only likely to lose him his job, but make him a persona non-grata for some time to come.
So, leaving the narrative behind and focusing on the learning for today’s blog: We are all human and will make errors. When we make a mistake be ready to recognise it. Consider the impact you have had on others and what corrective actions will show genuine intent to remedy the mistake. It may not save you in the moment, but it will give you a chance, and after everything calms down others will look back and recognise that you acted with dignity.
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