From July-August last year, I was in Australia and New Zealand covering Spain’s Women’s World Cup win — and the scandal that followed when the country’s now-disgraced federation president Luis Rubiales gave striker Jenni Hermoso an unsolicited kiss.

From months before the tournament to returning to my home in Barcelona, the experience was surreal. A new Netflix documentary called #SeAcabó: Diario de las campeonas (It’s All Over: The Kiss That Changed Spanish Football) made me relive the calm before the storm I experienced at La Roja’s base in Palmerston North, New Zealand, and the frustration that followed.

It’s worth remembering the turbulence of Spain’s World Cup preparations. When their squad was announced, it didn’t include some of the game’s best players. Fifteen internationals had declared themselves ineligible for mental health reasons until the federation (RFEF) made changes to the way it treated women’s football. Some players went to the World Cup after a nine-month absence from the national team.

There were many internal divisions: between ‘Las 15’, as the players who had sent emails declaring themselves ineligible became known in the media, and others who did not. And also between those who sent the email and decided to go to the tournament anyway, and those who did not.

You would think that climate would make it impossible to win anything but, strangely enough, the opposite happened. Spain made history by winning a knockout game in a major competition for the first time — and went all the way to the final, where they beat England 1-0.

But that was just the beginning. After full time, coach Jorge Vilda pointed to Rubiales in the stands, who responded by grabbing his crotch and pointing to Vilda, as if the success was theirs alone. That ignored the fact this was an exceptional generation and showed the players had been right to say that people did not believe in them. It was disrespectful to everyone, including England’s Lionesses.

Then came Rubiales’ kiss on Hermoso, his non-apology, the pressure on Hermoso to downplay the seriousness of the incident in a proposed video with him, and a speech from Rubiales in which he blamed “false feminism” for how he had been treated and repeated “I’m not going to resign” five times.

Rubiales eventually resigned 21 days after the final following a provisional sanction from world governing body FIFA (it then banned him from football for three years). The legal case over the kiss continues, with Spanish prosecutors seeking a two-and-a-half year prison sentence for him, consisting of a one-year sentence for a charge of alleged sexual assault and a further one-and-a-half years for alleged coercion. The trial will start on February 3 next year.

Rubiales has always claimed Hermoso gave consent for him to kiss her. Hermoso has testified the kiss was not consensual and that attempts were made to force her into saying the opposite. Various Spanish outlets reported that Rubiales denied coercing Hermoso in his testimony before a judge in September last year.

Rubiales will stand trial in February next year (Alberto Gardin/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The main focus of the documentary is on Alexia Putellas, Hermoso and Irene Paredes. Aitana Bonmati, Laia Codina, Teresa Abelleira, Ivana Andres, Sandra Panos, Olga Carmona and Lola Gallardo also feature.

It goes in chronological order from before those 15 emails were sent, explaining how, even after the 2022 European Championship in England, this talented generation felt as if they were being wasted and that Vilda was not giving them solutions when games were not going well.

As The Athletic has reported, and the players discuss in the documentary, Vilda asked them to leave the door to their hotel rooms open until midnight. He stopped them at points to ask them to show them the inside of their bags — to see if they had bought anything. They reproached him for what they perceived as lazy coaching and a lack of professionalism in training.

In a press conference in September 2022, after he had omitted the 15 players from his squad, Vilda said: “I challenge anyone to come out and say there hasn’t been respect or that there’s been a bad mark in my behaviour with them (the players) in all my career.”

The players say in the documentary that Paredes spoke to Vilda and Rubiales in August 2022 to explain the players’ feelings, and the full conversation was leaked a few days later in the press.

“I was shocked because that conversation was only between me and him (Rubiales),” Paredes explains in the documentary. “He went after us.”

In many stories at the time, Paredes was portrayed as the instigator of a campaign against Vilda. She gave a press conference on September 1 with Guijarro and Hermoso — alongside Vilda — in which they explained they only wanted basic improvements.

“Between games, we were travelling five hours by bus,” Paredes says in the documentary. “We didn’t have our own dressing room. We couldn’t use the gym, the only one we had, because it belonged to the boys, even if they weren’t there. It was a lot of things.”

The documentary details another national team training camp in September 2022. Following the first lunch, all the players were gathered by Vilda. Chairs were put in a circle and the women were encouraged to air their concerns, according to everyone interviewed in the documentary. The Barca contingent was the most vocal at that meeting, and this is where the division between players started.

Vilda after the World Cup final (Joe Prior/Visionhaus via Getty Images)

Those who later declared themselves ineligible, such as Bonmati, felt everything had been said unanimously by the players — but were then disappointed by how others didn’t speak up or contradicted them in the meeting.

“We were asked if we wanted to continue defending that shirt,” says Abelleira. “You were in front of someone who was going to decide whether to call you up or not depending on what we said.”

“In that meeting, I had something inside, I was telling myself that I had to speak up,” Ivana Andres, who was Spain’s captain for the World Cup, says. “But there were very radical positions (being taken) that said they couldn’t take it any more and I thought it was a very high price to pay and I didn’t want to miss a World Cup. In the end, I finished that meeting and I didn’t speak.”

“I was in a very different position to the rest of my team-mates because I had been in the national team for less time,” Carmona adds.

“I feel bad that they all couldn’t say what they felt because we all had the same opinion,” Bonmati says.

“I understood that meeting (was used) as a way of dividing us further,” Paredes says.

It is the first time the players have publicly expressed the divisions that existed within the group. We see how temporary bridges were built between the players and the RFEF — which gave them the minimum guarantees so they would go to the World Cup.

But we also see how Panos was excluded by Vilda despite being the starting goalkeeper for the reigning Spanish and European champions, Barca. Panos says she sent an email asking Vilda to come back for the World Cup and never received a response. Vilda then told a press conference that she had not been called up for sporting reasons.

But what moved me the most — and what makes the documentary so important — is how the aftermath of the kiss on Hermoso is shown.

In a moment of maximum euphoria, at the peak of happiness in her sporting career, having achieved something she thought would never happen, Hermoso stood on the stage to be given her winner’s medal. Rubiales took full advantage of that moment of weakness to ruin it forever, kissing her on the lips.

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In Hermoso’s head, something started to feel wrong. She was happy about the win, but something wasn’t right. Putellas and Paredes say Hermoso approached them to tell them about the kiss, looking for someone to tell her if it was right or wrong.

Hermoso is always the dressing-room joker, the one who is always in a good mood, the DJ, the one who makes her colleagues laugh. In the adrenaline of the moment, Putellas says she thought Hermoso was joking when she said Rubiales had kissed her.

The striker didn’t get the answers she was looking for at first and opted to say no more and keep celebrating — nobody wants to be the party pooper when you have won a World Cup. Then some of the players began to echo what had happened in a live broadcast on social media.

“Who kissed?,” goalkeeper Misa Rodriguez asked during the celebrations, as captured in a live stream from the time.

“Eh, but I didn’t like it,” Hermoso responded, still celebrating but making clear it wasn’t about her. “And what do I do? Look at me, just look at me (in that moment).”

During the celebrations, Rubiales went down to the dressing room. He came in, made jokes, said they all had a trip to Ibiza paid for when they returned from the tournament and that his wedding to Hermoso would take place there, as multiple videos from the players’ live streams showed. Thinking it was all a joke, the players celebrated. Rubiales went to grab Hermoso to recreate the image of a bride and groom at a wedding, while she made a face of clear discomfort.

The jokes continued until Paredes came down from the World Cup cloud and warned the others. “Girls, this is serious,” she said, as she details in the documentary.

Hermoso was awarded the Socrates Award at the recent Ballon d’Or ceremony for her humanitarian efforts (Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The different recordings and testimonies show the different phases Hermoso went through.

According to the documentary, a pivotal moment for Hermoso came in Ibiza. While the team were enjoying a well-deserved holiday as world champions, Hermoso and the players who accompanied her describe how she went through hell, as she felt she was put under pressure by the RFEF to make a statement saying everything was fine.

As Hermoso, Bonmati and Andres describe, Rubiales tried to pressure her on the plane home from the World Cup, attempting to record a video first with her and then with one of the captains to say everything was fine. Bonmati says she was even asked to appear on TV to reduce tensions, but they all refused.

“Rubiales, Jenni and I had a chat,” Codina says. “He told us that he was meeting a woman and that this woman had spoken to him and told him that nothing was wrong with the kiss, that she should just make the video and that was it.”

The pressure increased. Hermoso received messages from then-national team director and former Newcastle United striker Albert Luque saying that Rubiales didn’t deserve that and that she should take a stand. Those are messages the player herself shows in the documentary, including ones sent to a friend of hers when Hermoso stopped responding.

Prosecutors are seeking a one-and-a-half-year sentence for Luque for the charge of alleged coercion. He denied coercing Hermoso when he testified as a defendant in the Rubiales case in October 2023, according to several Spanish media reports, but admitted to having sent her messages.

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“They told me that it wasn’t going to stay like this,” Hermoso explains to Putellas and Paredes. “Threats. There came a point when I was walking and I had to turn around and look. I was afraid.”

Hermoso says the RFEF’s marketing director, Ruben Rivera, told her to call the federation’s integrity department to say “nothing” had happened. She says: “I didn’t want to, I didn’t know what I was signing”. Prosecutors are also looking to charge Rivera for alleged coercion. In March, he told radio station Cadena SER, “I have never coerced anyone in my life”.

While Hermoso was in Ibiza, Putellas and the other players told her it was better not to think about it, telling her to disconnect and enjoy the holiday. Then, Hermoso started crying.

“When I found out about everything in Ibiza, I felt terrible,” Putellas says. “You were telling us without saying it directly: ‘Help me’. And we were like, forcing you to think that nothing was happening, to say: ‘Forget about it, you’ve had a great World Cup, celebrate’.”

Hermoso faced harassment on social media. When she left her house, photos of her were posted on the internet with comments asking how things could be so bad if she was going for an ice cream.

The most striking thing about the documentary is that many women, to a greater or lesser extent, may identify with what happened to Hermoso. That goes beyond football, her or Rubiales.

What Hermoso goes through, from the time the medal is hung around her neck until she makes a complaint, is perceived in the documentary as a typical pattern of a woman who has been harassed by her superior at work. You convince yourself that everything is fine and try to continue celebrating, then you break down and cry because you realise that the best day of your life has been tarnished forever.

But it also shows that there are many friends like Putellas and Paredes ready to help someone fight. To help them say “It’s over — se acabó”.

(Top photo: Putellas, Hermoso and Paredes lift the World Cup; Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have donated $10,000 to an Oklahoma family after 18-year-old Baker Mayfield fan, Connor Barba, was tragically killed in a car accident on the way to the game. 

Barba and his mother, Megan Barnett, were traveling over the weekend to Arrowhead Stadium to watch the Bucs take on the Kansas City Chiefs. The mother-son trip was meant to celebrate Barba’s upcoming birthday. 

But they were involved in a tragic head-on collision with another vehicle in Kansas, killing Barba and leaving his mother seriously injured. 

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol crash log, a vehicle heading s​​outhbound on U169 turned into the northbound lane for an “unknown reason” and struck Barba’s vehicle head-on. The 45-year-old male driver of that car was also killed in the crash. 

A third vehicle was involved in the crash, but the driver was not injured. 

Following the tragic news, the Bucs donated $10,000 to the family, and a team spokesperson said that Mayfield, Barba’s favorite player, and his wife plan to reach out to the family, ESPN reported.

Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Joshua Uche (55) tackles Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) during the first half of an NFL football game, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo.  (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

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“My thoughts and prayers go out to Megan and her family as they deal with this heartbreaking loss,” Mayfield said in a statement, via the outlet. “I am honored and humbled knowing that Connor was such a big fan. I would have loved to have met him. As a new parent, this really hits home for me.”

He continued, “I realize there are no words that can provide true comfort at a time such as this, but I hope that Megan makes a full recovery and that she draws strength from the outpouring of support she is receiving from around the country.”

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) runs the ball during the second half against the Kansas City Chiefs at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.  (Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images)

According to a fundraiser set up on behalf of the family, Barnett is in the ICU in Tulsa and “has many injuries that will require extensive recovery.” 

Barba’s uncle Collin Barnett told “Good Morning America” that the young man’s quick thinking at the time of the crash may have saved his mother’s life. 

“We were told that the [other car] was in Connor’s lane, and Connor swerved, [and] that he hit the brakes tremendously hard and got Megan out of the way,” he said, via ESPN. “He took the full impact and was kind of heroic in that.” 

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NASCAR won’t visit Southern California next year and there’s no certainty when the stock-car racing series will return with construction on a new track in unincorporated San Bernardino County slowed.

NASCAR, which moved its 2025 season-opening event from the Coliseum to Winston-Salem, N.C., after three years, had hoped to race in Fontana next year, but the planned half-mile oval track being built on the site of the Auto Club Speedway won’t be completed in time — and there’s no timeline for when it will be done.

“What that looks like in the future remains to be seen,” Ben Kennedy, NASCAR’s executive vice-president and chief venue & racing information officer, said when the 2025 schedule was released this year. “Unfortunately we weren’t able to have it on the 2025 schedule, but bullish about getting it back on the schedule.”

With the exception of 2021, when the schedule was hampered by the pandemic, NASCAR has run at least one race in Southern California every year since 1997, when the Fontana superspeedway opened on the site of the old Kaiser steel mill.

“It’s a massive market for us,” Kennedy added. “No. 2 in terms of the quantity of NASCAR fans, a huge media market for us. Strategically it makes a lot of sense for us to be in Southern California.”

The absence of the race also will take a bite out of the local economy. The UC Riverside Center for Economic Forecasting and Development, which was shuttered last year, estimated that the NASCAR race had an economic impact of $148.7 million in its last survey in 2017. Adjusted for inflation, that would be nearly $192 million today.

The two-mile, low-banked, D-shaped oval drew 85,000 fans for its first NASCAR event, but when the series added a second annual race at the track in 2004, attendance fell and in 2014, the grandstands were reconfigured to lower capacity to 68,000. NASCAR did not release attendance figures for its final race at the track last year but said it was sold out.

Ten days after that race, NASCAR sold 433 of the 522 acres of the track’s footprint to Ross Perot Jr.’s Dallas-based Hillwood Development company and CBRE Investment Management for approximately $569 million, reported to be a record price for an industrial land deal. The site will be converted into a logistics facility and industrial park with 6.6 million square feet of warehousing spacing, with NASCAR retaining ownership of approximately 90 acres for a planned half-mile short track.

The main grandstands, front straight, pit road and pit road suites, which are all that remain of the old raceway, are to be incorporated into the new racing venue. But definitive plans on what the track will look like have not been released.

Construction began at the site last year with the build time on the track estimated at between 12 and 18 months. That timeline has proved overly optimistic.

“We have no updates on that effort at this time,” James Fuller, a spokesman for Hillwood and the Perot Group, said last month. In the meantime, traffic around the site on Cherry Avenue, sandwiched between the 10 and 210 freeways, has snarled.

NASCAR has been looking to transition part of its racing series from large superspeedways to half-mile oval tracks like the ones at Bristol, Tenn., Martinsville, Va., and North Wilkesboro, N.C. The resized Fontana facility is part of that transition.

“Our goal is really to be in Southern California long term,” Kennedy said. “We’ve continued to work on our plans for Fontana. We have a number of different configurations and variations the team has been working on for what that track might look like [and] what are the other activities that could happen on that parcel of land that we have there.”

In the meantime, NASCAR is looking at other opportunities in Southern California, Kennedy said, with reports last spring saying the possibilities of a street race in San Diego were being explored.

The headwinds appear to be pushing the other way, however. It was recently announced that the Irwindale Speedway, home to a variety of lower-tier NASCAR racing series for a quarter-century, will host its final race on Dec. 21.

IDS Real Estate, which bought the site in 2022, plans to bulldoze the track and build an industrial park in its place.