A sexism scandal in Spanish football hides the country’s progress

IN 1997 ANA ORANTESRFEF appeared on a Spanish television show to describe decades of vicious abuse by her husband: wild jealousy, beatings and isolation. Two weeks later she was found tied to a chair and burned to death by the man she had denounced. Spain was shocked not only by her murder, but also by the fact that she had called the police many times, to no avail.Compared with such abuse, the kiss Luis Rubiales planted on an unwilling Jenni Hermoso on August 20th might seem trivial. Ms Hermoso and Spain’s women’s football team had just , and while passing out medals, Mr Rubiales, the head of the , Spain’s football federation, grabbed the back of her head, pulled her towards him and planted his mouth on hers. A “peck”, he later said, and consensual.