On 20 August 2023, Spain won their first World Cup. That ought to be the first sentence of this story. For weeks it was not, and understanding why — and how the players turned it around — is to understand one of the moments that has most changed the history of Spanish women’s football.
What happened at the medal ceremony in Sydney is no longer one version of events, nor a controversy: it is a fact proven in court. The then president of the federation, Luis Rubiales, kissed the player Jenni Hermoso on the mouth without her consent. A court convicted him of sexual assault, a sentence upheld on appeal. There are not two competing accounts here; there is a fact and its consequences.
Hermoso’s reaction was immediate and clear: she had not consented. And what came next was the truly historic part. She did not speak alone. Dozens of internationals took a stand, announced that they would not wear the shirt again while the structure remained unchanged, and turned an individual grievance into a collective position. For once, the dressing room did not swallow it.
From that came a phrase that spilled far beyond football: «Se acabó» — it’s over. It ceased to be a sporting slogan and became a social cry, repeated by women who had never set foot on a pitch. What had happened on a faraway podium was suddenly recognised as something everyday: the unwanted gesture, the power that takes liberties, the “it’s not that big a deal” that for decades had normalised everything.
The institutional response was a portrait in itself. Rubiales refused to resign in a defiant speech that is now studied as an example of what not to do. It took a FIFA suspension, public pressure and the world champions’ refusal to play before he finally fell. The federation that was supposed to protect them was, for far too long, the problem and not the solution.
The judicial process put things in their place with sobriety: a conviction for sexual assault, a fine of 10,800 euros and a restraining order; acquittal on the coercion charges. The prosecution asked for more; the court settled on this. It is not the sentence that makes this case a turning point, but what it established: that a non-consensual kiss is exactly that, non-consensual, whoever signs it off.
Because that is the change that truly matters, and it happened off the pitch. The case placed consent at the centre of Spain’s public conversation and gave many women a mirror and a phrase. A football team, without intending to, drew a line that can no longer be erased.
There is still a way to go — structures are not changed by a single ruling, and the players themselves say so whenever they can. But it is worth returning to the beginning: on 20 August 2023, Spain won their first World Cup. The champions had to fight for that to be, once again, the sentence that opens their story. They succeeded. And that — reclaiming their own triumph — was their second victory.
