How football president's kiss led to a #MeToo moment

When Jenni Hermoso arrived in the stands, the standing ovation was thundering. On the field below, Atlético de Madrid and AC Milan were battling it out for the Women's Cup, but the message - scrawled on posters, temporary tattoos and a metres-long banner unfurled by the players - was unanimous at the stadium in Madrid last Saturday night: "We're with you, Jenni Hermoso."

- Ashifa Kassam

It was a hint of how the tumultuous events of the week since La Roja's dazzling World Cup win had supercharged the long-running battle for equality in women's football. As the hashtag #SeAcabó, meaning "it's over", was embraced from Sevilla to Santander, it was clear that Spanish football's #MeToo moment had arrived.

Hours earlier, Luis Rubiales, the head of the Spanish football federation, had lashed out at "fake feminism" and bemoaned what he called a "social assassination" in the reaction to his grabbing Hermoso by the head and kissing her on the lips during the medal ceremony at the World Cup. Last Saturday, Fifa suspended Rubiales for 90 days, ordering both him and the federation to stay away from Hermoso and those close to her.

The backlash against Rubiales' conduct was swift. The World Cup champions said they would not play for the national team until the federation's leadership was removed. More than 50 other female players said the same. Nearly all of the coaching and technical staff for Spain's women's team resigned, joining seven members of the Spanish football federation.