Analyzing a Crisis: Rubiales and the RFEF

In this assignment from my master's course, Writing for Strategic Communication, we selected a PR crisis to analyze and gauge it's goals and success. The crisis I selected was the Women's Spanish Soccer Team and the disastrous response by the team's executives following a non-consensual kiss by the team president

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One of the more famous stories this summer came from the Women's World Cup for soccer. When Spain won, the celebration quickly became sullied when Luis Rubiales, the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, went up to Jenni Hermoso, one of the players for Spain, and kissed her without consent. The controversy caused an uproar, and contrary to what the public called for, no apology was immediately given. On the contrary, Rubiales doubled down and called the people criticizing him "idiots" and insisted that he would not resign as no wrong had been done.

Despite the incident being broadcast on live television in front of millions of people with photographs from countless angles and Hermoso publicly declaring it was not consensual, Rubiales insisted there was nothing to worry about and that the story would be gone in a week. Needless to say, that did not happen, and with Spain's women's team threatening to protest the next event and tons of public backlash from prominent public figures, Rubiales was forced out. 

On top of acting like an arrogant, entitled douchebag, Rubiales also broke cardinal rules from our assigned chapter, which advises consulting lawyers before you speak (which he didn't do, or if he did, they weren't good ones). This helps protect you from libel, slander, and/or admitting to things you should not have done. Had he consulted reasonable attorneys and a good PR team, he would have had more refined responses or said nothing and let his PR team handle it openly with the press. Just like the Elon Musk fiasco, this whole thing was likely the result of arrogance and ego, and in the end, he dug his own grave.