Spain former football chief's kiss wrong 'in any social or work setting,' says star player Hermoso
- 3 hours ago
Spain star Jenni Hermoso on Monday told the trial of disgraced ex-football chief Luis Rubiales that his forced kiss on her in 2023 "shouldn't happen in any social or work setting".
Rubiales provoked worldwide outrage after he cupped Hermoso's head and gave her an unsolicited kiss after Spain beat England to win the 2023 Women's World Cup in Australia.
Prosecutors are seeking two and a half years in prison for Rubiales, one year for sexual assault for the forced kiss and 18 months for allegedly coercing Hermoso, 34, to downplay the incident.
Rubiales, 47, has called the kiss an innocuous "peck between friends celebrating" and denied any coercion.
"This shouldn't happen in any social or work setting... A kiss on the lips is only given when I decide so," Hermoso said on the opening day of the trial at the National Court in San Fernando de Henares near Madrid.
"As a woman I felt disrespected. It was a moment that stained one of the happiest days of my life," added Hermoso, the all-time top scorer for the national women's team.
"At no point did I seek that act, let alone expect it," she said during more than two hours of testimony. "My attitude... does not take away from what I feel. I don't have to be crying in a room or have thrown myself to the ground when the act happened to imply I didn't like it."
Rubiales is scheduled to take the stand on February 12 in the highly anticipated trial running until February 19.
Among the accused alongside Rubiales are ex-women's national team coach Jorge Vilda and two former federation officials, Ruben Rivera and Albert Luque.
They also stand accused of trying to coerce Hermoso with prosecutors seeking 18 months' jail against them.
Life 'on stand by'
Hermoso said Luque asked her to help resolve "the biggest mess" of Rubiales' life and that federation officials wanted her to release a video or a statement hushing up the incident on "countless" occasions.
She said she suffered insufferable media pressure after returning to Spain and received death threats, with "people waiting for me outside, people following me, people taking photos of me while I had breakfast with my mother."
Hermoso, who now plays in Mexico, said she had to leave Madrid with her family due to the fear she felt. "Until today it feels like my life has been on stand by" due to the case, she added.
The scandal has rocked Spanish football and made Hermoso an icon of the fight against macho culture and sexism in sport.
"Thank you again, Jenni, for your bravery. Thanks to you and your teammates we add another victory for feminism," Equality Minister Ana Redondo wrote on X shortly before the trial started.
A recent reform of the Spanish criminal code classifies a non-consensual kiss as sexual assault.
Rubiales, who was already under investigation for alleged corruption in his role as federation head, finally gave into pressure and stepped down in September 2023, two days after the start of a probe over the kiss. He had been federation chief since 2018.
In a recent Netflix documentary titled "Se acabo" ("It's over"), which looks back at the players' anger after the scandal overshadowed their historic success, Hermoso revealed she cried following the kiss.
She told the court on Monday that "no one came to ask me how I was" after the incident and felt "completely abandoned by the federation."
Agence France-Presse
