With all due respect... I have to disagree they certainly do kiss male sportsmen.. there's no distinction with Latinos when they're congratulating people.. weddings.. births, sports....
he's a Football Manager.. not a president... footballers have been doing this for decades...
That's different Holly. No-one is claiming men don't kiss men in the excitement of their sport. But is that really comparable to someone not involved walking up and kissing a woman on the lips? Not for me. Unless there's some footage of him kissing a male winner on the lips - but even then I'd think he was wrong
twice.
It's also worth remembering that a) Things change, and what was acceptable last week may not be today; b) This was at a World Cup, and was shown on the worlds stage. It was not only a Spanish game, the entire planet got to see it. Some things, culturally, don't translate. They can even be offensive. Again, as a leader, I'd of thought he'd of known better.
I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this one. I don't much care about what is acceptable in his own world. The outcry has come, largely, from elsewhere. They're trying to grow women's sport, and especially women's football. To do so we need integrity, respect, and professionalism. We get that from the top down. I suspect he'll never do it again, if he manages to keep his job.
I'm reminded of an instance that is, in some ways, similar. I was with a company in London, and we were working on a deal for a piece of software. The software company was out of Utah, and they sent a rep over to meet us. She was a young woman, in her 20's I'd guess.
The meeting went on in a normal way, which meant at some point the owner of my business declared, "right, let's go to pub!" And so we did. This poor lady, from Utah with all that implies, was left in a real predicament I didn't appreciate until after the fact. I recall they bought her drinks, and her standing nervously caught in the trap of wanting to close the deal and bond with this client, while at the same time measuring up to her own cultural standards. I remember some mocking her - in that way men can have of using sarcasm/humor to insult - because she was drinking very slowly (ie. not at all).
Her behavior was the topic of some discussion the next day. Goodness knows how she coped. Those trips to the pub were long, and always ended up one way, filthy drunk. I've no idea what she went back and said to her colleagues!
Which is to say - culture clashes don't make things right. A little common sense (which was clearly missing on this day) should have prevailed, with respect to the wishes of the guest. That didn't happen, and it put her in a very uncomfortable situation.
