'He wasn't raping her,' Woody Allen defends Spanish football manager's World Cup kiss

Woody Allen has defended Spanish Football Manager Luis Rubiales after he was condemned for kissing player Jenni Hermoso during the World Cup final.
After kissing  Hermoso on the lips during the game in August, the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation attracted severe condemnation. While many have called on him to step down, controversial director Allen has now advocated that Rubiales should remain in his position.
Over the weekend, the “Midnight in Paris” director attended the Venice Film Festival to premiere his 50th picture, the romantic comedy “Coup de Chance”. At a screening on Monday (4 September), the film received a five-minute standing ovation.
Following the screening, the 87-year-old was interviewed by Spanish daily El Mundo about Rubiales, 46, kissing Hermoso, 33, after Spain defeated England in the World Cup final.
In response, Allen suggested that the football manager apologize to Hermoso, who claimed that the kiss was not consensual. On the other hand, he suggested that Rubiales should not be fired for "just a kiss."
"Although the kiss on the athlete was improper, it did not result in the burning down of a school," according to Allen. "He has an obligation to apologize and move on. He did not kiss her in a shadowy alley, and he did not escape,”he added.
"He wasn't raping her; it was just a friendly kiss. What's the problem with that?"
The director said, "It is difficult to understand how a person can lose their job and be punished in this way for kissing someone."
Jenni Hermoso and her 22 teammates have refused to play for the national team unless Rubiales resigns. Rubiales' resignation has been demanded by the RFEF regional chiefs as well as Hermoso and her teammates.
Rubiales has been provisionally suspended by Fifa for 90 days pending an investigation into his behavior, but he has refused to resign.
Allen's comments come after he discussed whether or not he believes he has been "cancelled" in another recent interview. In recent years, the Midnight in Paris director's name has been linked to charges of assaulting Dylan Farrow, his adoptive daughter with Mia Farrow, as a kid.
Dylan first made the allegations in 1992, and later aired them as an adult in an open letter published on The New York Times website in 2014, as well as in a 2016 opinion article for The Los Angeles Times and a 2018 interview with CBS. Allen has rejected the allegations, and no charges have been filed.
Following the premiere of Coup de Chance, Allen talked to a new channel about his experiences with so-called cancel culture, calling it "so silly."Coup de Chance is set to be released in France on September 27th, but no US release date has been set as of yet.