MADRID – The Spanish footballer Jenni Hermoso has told a court that the disgraced ex-football chief Luis Rubiales gave her a kiss that “shouldn’t happen in any social or work setting”.
Luis Rubiales, the former president of the Spanish Football Federation, has gone on trial accused of sexual assault and coercion at Madrid’s High Court. He denies any wrongdoing.
Rubiales, 47, prompted outrage around the world when he cupped Hermoso’s head and gave her an unsolicited kiss after Spain beat England to win the Women’s World Cup Final in Australia in August 2023.
The scandal rocked Spanish football and led to Rubiales’ resignation. Fifa later banned the football boss from all football-related activity at national and international levels for three years.
Hermoso was kissed by Luis Rubiales after she and her team won the Fifa Women’s World CupProsecutors are seeking two and a half years in prison for Rubiales if he is convicted.
In a highly anticipated trial, broadcast live on television in Spain, Hermoso, 34, described the moment Rubiales kissed her after Spain’s victory.
“My boss was kissing me, and this shouldn’t happen in any social or work setting. A kiss on the lips has a connotation that goes beyond a kiss of courtesy and friendship,” she said.
“As a woman I felt disrespected. It was a moment that stained one of the happiest days of my life,” she added.
“For me it is very important to say that at no point did I seek that act, let alone expect it.”
Former president of the Spanish football federation Luis Rubiales arrives at the court of San Fernando de Henares (Photo: Javier Soriano / AFP)Spanish football officials ‘put pressure on her’
In the hours after the incident, Rubiales allegedly tried to pressurise Hermoso into saying that the kiss was consensual.
Hermoso said during the team’s journey from Australia back to Spain, she came under pressure from Rubiales and other football federation officials to agree to a statement which downplayed the incident.
“They had never asked me about it,” she said. “I said no.”
The player also said she was also asked to make a video with Rubiales for the media when the team’s plane stopped off in Doha on the way back, to downplay the incident. Again, she said she refused.
Three other former football officials are accused of trying to coerce Hermoso into saying that the kiss was consensual.
They are ex-women’s national team coach Jorge Vilda and two other Spanish football federation officials, Ruben Rivera and Albert Luque. All face prison terms of up to 18 months in prison if convicted but deny coercion.
Ex-women’s national team coach Jorge Vilda, left, is accused of trying to coerce Hermoso (Photo: Chema Moya / AFP)The footballer, who now plays for Mexico, said that when she returned to Spain, she received death threats and had to leave Madrid with her family.
“I had cameramen outside my house 24/7 and cars. I received death threats. I had to leave Madrid with my family. It was impossible to be there,” she said.
She said she had to see her psychologist more often than normal because of the repercussions of the case.
“I didn’t choose this. I never would. Why did this have to happen to me? Until today, it feels like my life has been on standby” because of the case, she told the court.
The kiss prompted Spain’s own #MeToo moment when female players posted #SeAcabo – it’s over – on social media and put machismo in sport on trial.
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Rubiales, who had been federation chief since 2018, initially dismissed the kiss as a “peck” but later gave into pressure and resigned in September 2023 after a criminal investigation began into the case.
A recent reform of the Spanish penal code classified a non-consensual kiss as sexual assault.
Among the nearly 20 witnesses expected to testify during the trial are Spain’s men’s national team coach, Luis de la Fuente, and some of Hermoso’s teammates, including former world player of the year Alexia Putellas.
Rubiales is required to attend only the first and the last day, according to the court.
Amid huge media interest from around the world, the trial in Madrid is expected to run for up to three weeks, then the judges will retire to consider their verdicts.
The trial continues.
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