After ‘years of forced silence,’ Spanish women’s soccer players speak openly about Luis Rubiales’ kiss in new documentary

(CNN) — The most talked-about moment in women’s soccer last year, and indeed for the past several years, wasn’t a goal, nor a piece of skill, nor anything that happened during a match. It was an unwanted kiss given by a then-federation president to one of the game’s biggest stars.

For many onlookers, the incident between Luis Rubiales and Jennifer Hermoso at the 2023 Women’s World Cup final offered momentary insight into the life of a women’s soccer player. But for those more intimately acquainted with the turmoil and controversy underlying Spanish soccer, it served as a flashpoint.

Among those who instantly saw the bigger picture was Joanna Pardo, the director of the new Netflix documentary, “It’s All Over: The Kiss That Changed Spanish Soccer,” released at the start of the month.

Despite watching the team win a first Women’s World Cup title over England, Pardo was acutely aware that this was a team in crisis, a group of players who had long been rallying against perceived sexism and inequality. The fallout to the Rubiales kiss only reinforced her view that this was a story that demanded a wider audience, and now was the time to tell it.

“The soccer players, for the first time, felt the social support to dare to speak, and we knew the subject in depth,” Pardo told CNN Sport, adding how Rubiales’ now infamous actions after the kiss compelled her to shoot the documentary.

“(He) laid it out for us on a silver platter,” she said.

Rubiales was serving as president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) when he kissed Hermoso during the Women’s World Cup final medal ceremony. He later described the kiss as mutual, but Hermoso has denied that claim, saying that she was not respected.

In the days that followed, Rubiales staunchly defended his actions, refusing to resign from his post while decrying “fake feminism” and an “unjust” campaign against him.

But as pressure grew and with global governing body FIFA handing him a provisional suspension, Rubiales resigned from his position in September last year, explaining how “the powers that be will prevent my return.”

FIFA has since banned Rubiales from “all football-related activities,” a decision that was upheld on appeal, while Spanish prosecutors are seeking a two-and-a-half-year prison term for the 47-year-old, alleging that he kissed Hermoso “without consent and acceptance.” Rubiales has denied the charges.

Rifts had appeared in the team long before Rubiales’ kiss. In September 2022, 15 players, who became known as Las 15 (“The 15” in Spanish), announced that they would not undertake international duty while then-manager Jorge Vilda, a long-term ally of Rubiales, remained in charge. Vilda called the situation a “worldwide embarrassment” and some of the players subsequently returned to the team for the World Cup the following year.

The deep-rooted problems in Spanish soccer, which triggered outrage in the Iberian nation and around the world after Rubiales’ kiss, is carefully dissected in the “It’s All Over” documentary, with comprehensive testimonies from some of the nation’s top women’s players, including Alexia Putellas, Aitana Bonmatí – both two-time Ballon d’Or Féminin winners – Irene Paredes and Hermoso herself.

It pays particular attention to how the World Cup-winning players formed a united front amid the fallout from the Rubiales kiss, once again refusing to represent the national team and calling for “real structural changes” within the federation, leading to a crisis which forced the government to intervene.

The players’ testimonies in the documentary, Pardo said, were fueled by “the indignation, the rage, and also the joy and pride of what they had achieved.”

She added to CNN: “The scandal in the final was the last straw in a glass of indignation that had been filling up for years. But of course, the magnitude of the events and them occurring at the moment of the greatest success an athlete can have, like winning a World Cup, unleashed the players’ fury.

“The kiss wasn’t just a peck, as many said; it was a demonstration of superiority by someone who believes they are master and lord and wants to show the world they are right.”

The documentary is at its most captivating when revealing new details about how Rubiales and Vilda, who was fired weeks after the World Cup win, behaved around the team.

Vilda is described by the players as a controlling, overbearing presence, checking what they were eating, who they were spending time with, and even going into their hotel rooms in the evening for a conversation.

“He used to come into our room when we were lying in bed,” former national team goalkeeper Sandra Paños says in the documentary. “It was a really uncomfortable situation.”

Prior to that, when the team is seen preparing for the World Cup semifinal against Sweden, Rubiales gives an awkward, seemingly ill-judged speech to the players, asking, “Who has more ovaries, us or them?” His words, Bonmatí adds in the documentary, went “in one ear and out the other.”

Also notable is video footage of the players joking about Rubiales kissing Hermoso during their celebrations after the final, only for veteran defender Paredes to interfere and urge them to stop. “This is serious,” she says. “He kissed her because he feels superior to her.”

As for Hermoso, she features prominently in the documentary through conversations with Paredes and Putellas, revealing how she received abuse on social media after the kiss, felt scared leaving the house and was “petrified” watching Rubiales’ refusal to resign.

Her close friend Putellas describes succinctly the dilemma Hermoso faced when she was kissed by Rubiales, explaining: “It’s difficult to react in that moment and say, ‘Stop,’ because, first, he’s your boss, and second, because you’re in a very strong moment emotionally.’”

Towards the end of the documentary, we hear how the federation tried “every single way” to protect Rubiales after the kiss, according to Paredes, by controlling media statements and urging the players to come to the defense of the now disgraced former president. Bonmatí explains how she was told to “reduce the tension” and “act as if nothing happened” in interviews with TV channels.

CNN contacted RFEF and Rubiales’ legal representative for comment on the contents of the documentary but did not receive a response.

Vilda is scheduled to stand trial in February alongside Rubiales having been accused of coercing Hermoso into saying the kiss was consensual. His lawyer, Luis Jordana de Pozas, told CNN that neither Vilda nor his entourage will comment on the events surrounding last year’s World Cup, including the documentary, until the trial has concluded.

All the player interviews filmed for the documentary, Pardo said, were long – about four hours in total, delving deep into one of the biggest stories to grip women’s soccer. In the end, it’s their willingness to speak candidly about the issue that makes for compelling viewing.

“The players had endured years of forced silence,” said Pardo. “The idea that speaking out or questioning would take a toll on their sports careers was firmly ingrained in their minds, and breaking the mantra of fear wasn’t easy.”

After filming, Pardo said that she could sense the players’ “relief of having shed a heavy burden.” Closure is an overriding message from the one-hour, 35-minute documentary, which ends with Hermoso repeating, for one final time, a phrase that has become synonymous with the World Cup winning team: “It’s all over.”

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.