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5th September 2023
11:22am BST
Woody Allen has defended Spanish football boss Luis Rubiales over his kissing of Jenni Hermoso at the Women's World Cup final.
The Spanish FA president kissed Hermoso after her side's victory against England in the Women’s World Cup Final.
Rubiales is facing increasing calls to resign from his position after he kissed Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the trophy presentation at the Women’s World Cup final and has also been suspended by FIFA for 90 days.
Hermoso herself has said the kiss was not consensual and all of manager Jorge Vilda’s staff have resigned from their position, whilst all 23 players who featured at the tournament in Australia and New Zealand have signed a statement refusing to play until Rubiales is sacked.
The Spanish football federation have also called for him to resign, and on Tuesday the men's senior side called Rubiales' behaviour "unacceptable."
Now, film director Woody Allen has weighed in on the scandal now, after he was asked about Rubiales at the Venice Film Festival.
Allen was in attendance in Venice to debut his 50th movie, the romantic-comedy Coup de Chance, which screened on Monday and was met with a five-minute standing ovation.
Afterwards, he was asked by Spanish-language publication El Mundo about the Rubiales scandal.
Whilst Allen said the football boss should apologise to Hermoso, he argued that Rubiales shouldn't lose his job over "just a kiss."
“The kiss on the soccer player was wrong, but it did not burn down a school,” Allen said, The Daily Mail reports. “He has the duty to apologise and go ahead... They didn’t hide, nor did he kiss her in a dark alley.
“He wasn’t raping her, it was just a kiss and she was a friend. What’s wrong with that?”
The director added: “In any case, it is difficult to understand that a person can lose their job and be penalised in that way for kissing someone.”
Allen has a controversial figure in recent years, particularly in relation to allegations from his adoptive daughter Dylan Farrow, who has accused him of molesting her as a child.
Dylan first made the allegations in 1992, and shared them as an adult in an open letter published in 2014 on The New York Times’s website, as well as in a 2016 opinion piece for The Los Angeles Times, and a 2018 interview with CBS.
Allen has denied the allegations, and no charges have been brought against him.
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