Spanish state prosecutors accused him on Friday of sexual assault and coercion after the kiss, two days after Hermoso formally accused him.
President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation Luis Rubiales announces he will be staying as president during the meeting, August 25, 2023.., finally folded under immense pressure Sunday and resigned three weeks after his kiss of a player on the lips overshadowed Spain's first-ever Women's World Cup title.
He had already been temporarily suspended from his job by FIFA for his conduct at the final and, after soccer's world body opened a disciplinary case, remained defiant and hostile toward those who criticized him. "The former president of the Spanish soccer federation has done what he had to do," Spain's Secretary of State for Sport Víctor Francos told Spain's Cadena SER radio. "I think it is what practically the entirety of Spanish society had asked him to do."