La Roja’s coach acknowledged he was wrong and apologised. Why did you do it? He tried to explain it himself.
Why did Luis de la Fuente applaud Luis Rubiales’ speech at the Extraordinary General Assembly on August 25? It is the question that was asked again and again to the Spanish coach during the press conference offered this Friday, September 1.
THE PRESS CONFERENCE OF DE LA FUENTE ON SEPTEMBER 1
De la Fuente gave the call to La Roja on Friday for the duels against Georgia and Cyprus, both qualifiers for the 2024 European Championship. And he had to do it in the controversy caused by the ‘Rubiales case’, with much of the public rejecting the applause that the Spanish coach gave last Friday at the Extraordinary General Assembly to the -now suspended- president of the RFEF. August 25.
A curiosity: While applauding Rubiales’ speech (suspended by FIFA the next day) in Las Rozas that afternoon, he released a statement 24 hours later condemning “conclusively the wrong conduct” of the former AFE top manager. Afternoon: it had already earned the criticism of a large part of the opinionpublic
“Given the repercussion of my applause in the meeting, I want to experience the situation there. I have received harsh criticism, which is absolutely deserved. I apologize for it. These are unjustifiable facts. I went to the meeting convinced that it was “The protocol farewell act of a president and he became the opposite. These gestures do not represent my values or the way of doing things in life. I have always been of equality and respect. In my 26 years as a coach, I have always had impeccable conduct,” he began saying.
“I didn’t feel betrayed by Luis Rubiales, but I arrived thinking it was going to be a dismissal meeting and we were shocked to see that it wasn’t,” he added. “I applauded the context we were in. I had never experienced a situation of such emotional stress,” he later added.
While acknowledging that his applause is “unjustifiable,” he tried to explain it again: “What I did is unjustifiable. What I’m trying to expose is the context. I experienced it overwhelmed, I didn’t know how to live it and I couldn’t control my emotions. When you think later and see yourself in the cameras… I don’t recognize myself. In the forest you only see branches and when you separate yourself from the forest you see the true situation”.
Source: Goal