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NWSL coach condemns Spain soccer president kissing player

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Casey Stoney is one of the game's most outspoken voices. (Brad Smith/ISI Photos/Getty Images)

Casey Stoney is not one to mince words. The San Diego Wave head coach has been fined multiple times this season for criticizing NWSL officials.

Now, Stoney has weighed on the controversy surrounding Luis Rubiales and Jenni Hermoso after the World Cup final. Rubiales, the president of the Spanish football federation (RFEF), gave the 33-year-old midfielder a surprise kiss on the lips during the team’s World Cup celebration. Spain defeated England, 1-0, to win the title.

“Would he kiss a male player like this?” Stoney wrote on X. “This is NOT ok.”

Her post echoed comments she made last year on the danger of power imbalances and “boundaries crossed” in women’s sports.

Stoney added to the cacophony surrounding the incident. Irene Montero, Spain’s national minister for equality, condemned Rubiales’ actions.

“It’s a form of sexual violence women suffer on a daily basis.” Montero wrote on social media. “We should not assume kissing without consent is something ‘that happens.’”

Hermoso, for what it’s worth, has said the gesture was “no big deal,” and Rubiales has apologized.

“I made a mistake, for sure,” Rubiales said in a video released to the media. “I have to accept it. In a moment of such emotion, without any bad intention or bad faith, what happened, happened, in a very spontaneous way. [There was] no bad faith from either side.”