November 7 – Netflix has long been known to tackle controversial subjects, while Spanish football has had an uncomfortable relationship with it’s all-conquering women’s team. Now these two meet in an explosive documentary, It’s All Over: The Kiss That Changed Spanish Football will have certain sections of football squirming.
Spain had just won the 2023 Women’s World Cup beating England 1-0 in a final packed with drama. Striker, Jenni Hermoso, who played a pivotal role in the journey to the final reached the top of the podium to be congratulated by the President of the Spanish Football Association, Luis Rubiales.
Instead of a handshake though, Rubiales, planted a kiss straight onto the mouth of a shocked Hermoso.
This infamous kiss brought down, Rubiales, who was forced to resign after a period of embarrassing and futile grandstanding but the scars from the mental beating the players experienced in the wake of the incident are still raw.
The documentary is incredibly powerful and exposes the lengths those in power will exploit to remain in power.
For years the players who struggled under the former manager Ignacio Quereda, who spent 27 years in charge of the side without collecting silverware, are brutally detailed. Interviews expose how they were treated like they “were his little girls” with the manager “squeezing [their] stomach rolls.”
Unfortunately, this behaviour wasn’t new, as players had grumbled about Quereda as early as 2011 and the team complained collectively in 2015 after a disappointing World Cup exit. Even with the removal of Quereda nothing changed. Instead, Jorge Vilda, was given the job after being brought into the Spanish set-up by his father, Angel, who was a close ally of Rubiales.
The players spoke about how Vilda, created a controlling environment, going into players’ hotel rooms at night to talk with them, checking their shopping bags, controlling their media duties, and more.
When the leadership team expressed those concerns to Rubiales, their private conversations would appear in the press. When a letter requesting better coaching and conditions signed by 15 players, dubbed ‘Las 15’, was published in the press (leaked, according to the players, by the federation) they were accused of demanding the sacking of Vilda, of throwing a temper tantrum and of being unpatriotic.
The documentary also describes in uncomfortable detail how relationships between the players – victims of divide and rule tactics – became fractious. Even now divisions remain, and some players did not participate in the documentary, which shines a brutal light on the power of men who control the women’s game.
Contact the writer of this story, Nick Webster, at moc.l1732798402labto1732798402ofdlr1732798402owedi1732798402sni@o1732798402fni1732798402