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#SeAcabó: Diario de las campeonas (2024) - It's All Over: The kiss that changed Spanish football

‘#SeAcabó’ (2024) is a diary of champions

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by

MJ-A
in

Whether you remember this Netflix documentary as #SeAcabó: Diario de las campeonas or as the English title It’s All Over: The kiss that changed Spanish football, you should remember one thing. These women rose as one above president Luis Rubiales of the Spanish Federation and his underlings. And if you want to see how the women did it, watch this film. Now, especially now. It is utterly inspiring.

I fuss over these 2 titles because the soul of this heartfelt documentary is not one unwanted, unforgivable kiss. It’s really a heroic poem where an entire team of women believed in themselves and united together to create, in today’s vernacular, a superpower. Their superpower was to create a credible loud voice that insisted that the kiss and the federation’s efforts to downplay it were hurtful to Jenni Hermosa and were emblematic of the many ills suffered by the Spanish women’s national team (WNT). And these women were heard.

What is really great about this film is that so many WNT players participated (the womens team is known as La Selección Española but I will use WNT for short). Among them: Captains Jennifer Hermoso, Irene Paredes, and Alexia Putellas, superstar Aitana Bonmati, and the two GKs Lola Gallardo and Sandra Paños, who as members of Las 15 did not get called up for WWC 2023.

This is the first time that everything will be told

Early on, the documentary promises to tell everything, and in my eyes, it delivers about 90%. I’ll cover the missing 10% last. Although the film does not present what the team went through in chronological order, I am going to summarize everything in a rough timeline.

The issues between the La Selección and the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) had existed from the beginning of the WNT, but after their failure at WC 2015, the women began to complain as a group. Coach Ignacio Quereda had been in place for decades. He treated them like daughters, would pinch them and say they needed a good ***. His strategy sessions were bad, and he would draw 12 players on the board. He wanted Jenni to date his nephew. After 2015, the entire team called for him to be sacked, and he resigned.

But, Rubailes and the RFEF replaced Quereda with Jorge Vilda, who had coached the youth teams without accomplishment, but his father was in the federation. The players say that Jorge was a control freak who wanted to know who they were talking to, what they bought to eat, and then he would come into their rooms at night when they were in bed. A player thinks he was afraid they were talking behind his back.

On the pitch, the veteran players say that “It was pretty common for the head coach not to have solutions.” They had not won anything in 10 years and were having deja vu that they would fail again at WWC 2023. 11 months before the tournament, Captain Paredes asked for changes, but Rubiales was calling all the shots and refused. Her text messages were leaked in order to portray the women badly in the media. Then, 15 players (known as Las 15) plus the 3 captains wrote a letter saying not to call them up for La Selección unless changes were made, largely pointing at Coach Vilda.

Vilda then replaced most of Las 15, appointing Ivana Andres as captain to reward her loyalty. In Jan-2023, Putellas met with Rubiales and got some concessions, so she and the natural leadership came back to the team, but of Las 15, only 3 went to the World Cup.

The film covers the team’s progression through the WC, but the game footage is pretty scant. We end up listening to the players talk about what they were going through on and off the pitch. There is a brief mention that the team was initially divided but there is no explanation how the 2 factions melded, and I assume the dividing lines were along veteranship and loyalty.

There are many videos of Luis Rubiales’ inappropriate behavior beyond the kiss. He started showing up every day for pep talks. In one, he exhorts the women, who has bigger ovaries? During the final while in the Royal Box, he grabs his groin and thrusts. In the on-field celebration, he carries players on his shoulders, caveman style. He basically lies about kissing Jenni Hermoso, saying it was consensual and her idea, and that she jumped on him. At an assembly, he says that Jenni told him “Eres un crack.” Then he admonishes young girls, “Girls, learn from this. It’s a life lesson. You are the real feminists, not like those fake ones out there.”

Jenni Hermoso says she can’t relive the WC victory because it reminds her of that moment. The trauma that followed probably almost broke her. After the celebration, the team went to Ibiza, but the RFEF kept calling Jenni until she told Putellas, “I can’t take it anymore. They won’t stop.” She started crying. The RFEF wanted her to talk to Albert Luque of the Office of Integrity. Albert Luque called her friend and tried to get him to convince Jenni to say it was meaningless, but at the same time Luque wrote that Jenni was despicable and would get what she deserved.

#SeAcabo = It’s Over

The last part of the film covers #SeAcabo. Once the celebrations were over, the players decided on a unified message. It could have happened to any woman, so they needed to stand together, to help and protect Jenni. They contacted every woman who had ever played for the WNT and recited the statement over the phone so that it could not be leaked. This time, players did not worry about their future careers. There were things they would no longer tolerate. They all tweeted #SeAcabo and issued the same statement.

In that sense, Luis Rubiales’ kiss became the kiss of death for machismo in the RFEF.

In Conclusion

Many changes came from La Selección. Their courage and their unity inspire me to do more, and I hope this documentary inspires you as well.

As far as the 10% of the story that I would like to know… I am curious how the WNT overcame their initial division when the women showed up for WWC 2023. I also admired that the film tried to deal with Las 15. I wondered what became of those relationships, the women who held their ground and then were left off the roster. We hear from the 2 GKs, Lola Gallardo and Sandra Paños, who are honest about their feelings and regret. But there are 10 other players who were left off, and being field players, this was probably their last chance to go to a major tournament. Being unified is no piece of cake, because most of the time you don’t even get to taste the crumbs.

According to the film’s wikipedia page, the documentary was originally meant to be a 3-part series. This is probably one reason the game footage is so slim for a celebratory film.

10 Soccer Movie Mom Rating = 10

10

Soccer Movie Mom Rating = 10

10

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