What I learned from Netflixâs âThe Kiss That Changed Spanish Footballâ documentary
From July-August last year, I was in Australia and New Zealand covering Spainâs Womenâs World Cup win â and the scandal that followed when the countryâs now-disgraced federation president Luis Rubiales gave striker Jenni Hermoso an unsolicited kiss.
From months before the tournament to returning to my home in Barcelona, the experience was surreal. A new Netflix documentary called #SeAcabĂł: Diario de las campeonas (Itâs All Over: The Kiss That Changed Spanish Football) made me relive the calm before the storm I experienced at La Rojaâs base in Palmerston North, New Zealand, and the frustration that followed.
Itâs worth remembering the turbulence of Spainâs World Cup preparations. When their squad was announced, it didnât include some of the gameâs best players. Fifteen internationals had declared themselves ineligible for mental health reasons until the federation (RFEF) made changes to the way it treated womenâs football. Some players went to the World Cup after a nine-month absence from the national team.
There were many internal divisions: between âLas 15â, as the players who had sent emails declaring themselves ineligible became known in the media, and others who did not. And also between those who sent the email and decided to go to the tournament anyway, and those who did not.
You would think that climate would make it impossible to win anything but, strangely enough, the opposite happened. Spain made history by winning a knockout game in a major competition for the first time â and went all the way to the final, where they beat England 1-0.
But that was just the beginning. After full time, coach Jorge Vilda pointed to Rubiales in the stands, who responded by grabbing his crotch and pointing to Vilda, as if the success was theirs alone. That ignored the fact this was an exceptional generation and showed the players had been right to say that people did not believe in them. It was disrespectful to everyone, including Englandâs Lionesses.
Then came Rubialesâ kiss on Hermoso, his non-apology, the pressure on Hermoso to downplay the seriousness of the incident in a proposed video with him, and a speech from Rubiales in which he blamed âfalse feminismâ for how he had been treated and repeated âIâm not going to resignâ five times.
GO DEEPER
Spain won the Womenâs World Cup â but Luis Rubiales has made me ashamed to be Spanish
Rubiales eventually resigned 21 days after the final following a provisional sanction from world governing body FIFA (it then banned him from football for three years). The legal case over the kiss continues, with Spanish prosecutors seeking a two-and-a-half year prison sentence for him, consisting of a one-year sentence for a charge of alleged sexual assault and a further one-and-a-half years for alleged coercion. The trial will start on February 3 next year.
Rubiales has always claimed Hermoso gave consent for him to kiss her. Hermoso has testified the kiss was not consensual and that attempts were made to force her into saying the opposite. Various Spanish outlets reported that Rubiales denied coercing Hermoso in his testimony before a judge in September last year.
The main focus of the documentary is on Alexia Putellas, Hermoso and Irene Paredes. Aitana Bonmati, Laia Codina, Teresa Abelleira, Ivana Andres, Sandra Panos, Olga Carmona and Lola Gallardo also feature.
It goes in chronological order from before those 15 emails were sent, explaining how, even after the 2022 European Championship in England, this talented generation felt as if they were being wasted and that Vilda was not giving them solutions when games were not going well.
As The Athletic has reported, and the players discuss in the documentary, Vilda asked them to leave the door to their hotel rooms open until midnight. He stopped them at points to ask them to show them the inside of their bags â to see if they had bought anything. They reproached him for what they perceived as lazy coaching and a lack of professionalism in training.
In a press conference in September 2022, after he had omitted the 15 players from his squad, Vilda said: âI challenge anyone to come out and say there hasnât been respect or that thereâs been a bad mark in my behaviour with them (the players) in all my career.â
The players say in the documentary that Paredes spoke to Vilda and Rubiales in August 2022 to explain the playersâ feelings, and the full conversation was leaked a few days later in the press.
âI was shocked because that conversation was only between me and him (Rubiales),â Paredes explains in the documentary. âHe went after us.â
In many stories at the time, Paredes was portrayed as the instigator of a campaign against Vilda. She gave a press conference on September 1 with Guijarro and Hermoso â alongside Vilda â in which they explained they only wanted basic improvements.
âBetween games, we were travelling five hours by bus,â Paredes says in the documentary. âWe didnât have our own dressing room. We couldnât use the gym, the only one we had, because it belonged to the boys, even if they werenât there. It was a lot of things.â
The documentary details another national team training camp in September 2022. Following the first lunch, all the players were gathered by Vilda. Chairs were put in a circle and the women were encouraged to air their concerns, according to everyone interviewed in the documentary. The Barca contingent was the most vocal at that meeting, and this is where the division between players started.
Those who later declared themselves ineligible, such as Bonmati, felt everything had been said unanimously by the players â but were then disappointed by how others didnât speak up or contradicted them in the meeting.
âWe were asked if we wanted to continue defending that shirt,â says Abelleira. âYou were in front of someone who was going to decide whether to call you up or not depending on what we said.â
âIn that meeting, I had something inside, I was telling myself that I had to speak up,â Ivana Andres, who was Spainâs captain for the World Cup, says. âBut there were very radical positions (being taken) that said they couldnât take it any more and I thought it was a very high price to pay and I didnât want to miss a World Cup. In the end, I finished that meeting and I didnât speak.â
âI was in a very different position to the rest of my team-mates because I had been in the national team for less time,â Carmona adds.
âI feel bad that they all couldnât say what they felt because we all had the same opinion,â Bonmati says.
âI understood that meeting (was used) as a way of dividing us further,â Paredes says.
It is the first time the players have publicly expressed the divisions that existed within the group. We see how temporary bridges were built between the players and the RFEF â which gave them the minimum guarantees so they would go to the World Cup.
But we also see how Panos was excluded by Vilda despite being the starting goalkeeper for the reigning Spanish and European champions, Barca. Panos says she sent an email asking Vilda to come back for the World Cup and never received a response. Vilda then told a press conference that she had not been called up for sporting reasons.
But what moved me the most â and what makes the documentary so important â is how the aftermath of the kiss on Hermoso is shown.
In a moment of maximum euphoria, at the peak of happiness in her sporting career, having achieved something she thought would never happen, Hermoso stood on the stage to be given her winnerâs medal. Rubiales took full advantage of that moment of weakness to ruin it forever, kissing her on the lips.
GO DEEPER
Jenni Hermoso: Record goalscorer, serial swearer and icon of Spanish sport
In Hermosoâs head, something started to feel wrong. She was happy about the win, but something wasnât right. Putellas and Paredes say Hermoso approached them to tell them about the kiss, looking for someone to tell her if it was right or wrong.
Hermoso is always the dressing-room joker, the one who is always in a good mood, the DJ, the one who makes her colleagues laugh. In the adrenaline of the moment, Putellas says she thought Hermoso was joking when she said Rubiales had kissed her.
The striker didnât get the answers she was looking for at first and opted to say no more and keep celebrating â nobody wants to be the party pooper when you have won a World Cup. Then some of the players began to echo what had happened in a live broadcast on social media.
âWho kissed?,â goalkeeper Misa Rodriguez asked during the celebrations, as captured in a live stream from the time.
âEh, but I didnât like it,â Hermoso responded, still celebrating but making clear it wasnât about her. âAnd what do I do? Look at me, just look at me (in that moment).â
During the celebrations, Rubiales went down to the dressing room. He came in, made jokes, said they all had a trip to Ibiza paid for when they returned from the tournament and that his wedding to Hermoso would take place there, as multiple videos from the playersâ live streams showed. Thinking it was all a joke, the players celebrated. Rubiales went to grab Hermoso to recreate the image of a bride and groom at a wedding, while she made a face of clear discomfort.
The jokes continued until Paredes came down from the World Cup cloud and warned the others. âGirls, this is serious,â she said, as she details in the documentary.
The different recordings and testimonies show the different phases Hermoso went through.
According to the documentary, a pivotal moment for Hermoso came in Ibiza. While the team were enjoying a well-deserved holiday as world champions, Hermoso and the players who accompanied her describe how she went through hell, as she felt she was put under pressure by the RFEF to make a statement saying everything was fine.
As Hermoso, Bonmati and Andres describe, Rubiales tried to pressure her on the plane home from the World Cup, attempting to record a video first with her and then with one of the captains to say everything was fine. Bonmati says she was even asked to appear on TV to reduce tensions, but they all refused.
âRubiales, Jenni and I had a chat,â Codina says. âHe told us that he was meeting a woman and that this woman had spoken to him and told him that nothing was wrong with the kiss, that she should just make the video and that was it.â
The pressure increased. Hermoso received messages from then-national team director and former Newcastle United striker Albert Luque saying that Rubiales didnât deserve that and that she should take a stand. Those are messages the player herself shows in the documentary, including ones sent to a friend of hers when Hermoso stopped responding.
Prosecutors are seeking a one-and-a-half-year sentence for Luque for the charge of alleged coercion. He denied coercing Hermoso when he testified as a defendant in the Rubiales case in October 2023, according to several Spanish media reports, but admitted to having sent her messages.
GO DEEPER
Rubiales: Prosecutors seeking two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for ex-RFEF president
âThey told me that it wasnât going to stay like this,â Hermoso explains to Putellas and Paredes. âThreats. There came a point when I was walking and I had to turn around and look. I was afraid.â
Hermoso says the RFEFâs marketing director, Ruben Rivera, told her to call the federationâs integrity department to say ânothingâ had happened. She says: âI didnât want to, I didnât know what I was signingâ. Prosecutors are also looking to charge Rivera for alleged coercion. In March, he told radio station Cadena SER, âI have never coerced anyone in my lifeâ.
While Hermoso was in Ibiza, Putellas and the other players told her it was better not to think about it, telling her to disconnect and enjoy the holiday. Then, Hermoso started crying.
âWhen I found out about everything in Ibiza, I felt terrible,â Putellas says. âYou were telling us without saying it directly: âHelp meâ. And we were like, forcing you to think that nothing was happening, to say: âForget about it, youâve had a great World Cup, celebrateâ.â
Hermoso faced harassment on social media. When she left her house, photos of her were posted on the internet with comments asking how things could be so bad if she was going for an ice cream.
The most striking thing about the documentary is that many women, to a greater or lesser extent, may identify with what happened to Hermoso. That goes beyond football, her or Rubiales.
What Hermoso goes through, from the time the medal is hung around her neck until she makes a complaint, is perceived in the documentary as a typical pattern of a woman who has been harassed by her superior at work. You convince yourself that everything is fine and try to continue celebrating, then you break down and cry because you realise that the best day of your life has been tarnished forever.
But it also shows that there are many friends like Putellas and Paredes ready to help someone fight. To help them say âItâs over â se acabĂłâ.
(Top photo: Putellas, Hermoso and Paredes lift the World Cup; Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
#learned #Netflixs #Kiss #Changed #Spanish #Football #documentary