‘MOMENT OF ELATION’

Spanish Soccer President Apologizes for Ambushing World Cup Star With Kiss

“I surely made a mistake,” Royal Spanish Football Federation President Luis Rubiales said.

Royal Spanish Football Federation President Luis Rubiales conceded that he was in the wrong for giving an unexpected kiss on the lips to Spain’s Jennifer Hermoso after their team’s World Cup final victory on Sunday. “There’s an event, which I have to regret, which is everything that happened between the player and I, with a magnificent relationship between the two of us, the same as with the others,” Rubiales said in a video statement in Spanish Monday. “And well, I surely made a mistake, I have to recognize that. In a moment of elation, without any intention of bad faith, well, what happened happened—I think in a very spontaneous way. I repeat, there was no bad faith between either of the two of us.” Rubiales caught hell on social media after the apparently nonconsensual kiss went viral, with many labeling the incident as “disgusting” and “unacceptable.”