Rubiales claims he did get consent from Hermoso in court defence over kiss
Shamed Spanish FA president Luis Rubiales continued to plead his innocence in Spain’s National Court amid the ongoing probe over his kiss with national team striker Jenni Hermoso at the summer’s Women’s World Cup trophy presentation.
Spanish football was thrust into disarray after Rubiales was seen kissing Hermoso on the lips as the women’s national team collected their historic winners’ medals after their 1-0 victory over England in the Women’s World Cup.
Rubiales, who stepped down from his position as RFEF chief in September amid a spiralling scandal that has torn through Spanish football’s upper echelons and threatened to swallow the federation whole, is facing a charge of sexual assault over the kiss and a charge of coercion over allegations that he subsequently pressure Hermoso and her family to defend him.
In a letter announcing his resignation from the RFEF presidency, the 46-year-old declared he would fight to prove his innocence. And in what is thought to be a 55-minute defence in Spain's High Court in Madrid on Wednesday, Rubiales doubled down on his claims that Hermoso was lying about the non-consensual nature of the kiss and reiterated that he had requested consent before the incident.
“She knows perfectly well that she is being untrue,” Rubiales claimed, as per outlet El ESPAÑOL. "At the medal ceremony, I was hugging the players, the coach, when she passed by. She comes to me to give me a hug. We hug, she lifts me up and I make a gesture so as not to fall, all this with a conversation in which I remind her - because she had missed a penalty - to cheer up a little, that without her we couldn't have won the World Cup.
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“She tells me I'm a crack (a slang term of endearment in Spanish), thank you very much. And then I ask her, can I give you a little kiss, a little peck? And she tells me that it's okay.”
Former Spanish football federation president Luis Rubiales (L) and lawyer Olga Tubau (Photo by Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images)Rubiales added that he later held a conversation with Hermoso about the potential backlash after the fact. “There is a moment when I ran into her, because I was in the front row and she went to the bathroom. Fifteen seconds, it wouldn't be more. ‘Hey, Jenni, why don't we both go out? Let's end this, because this is going to hurt me a lot.’
‘No, look, President Rubi, I'll pass, I want to enjoy the World Cup, I'm not going to make any more statements. If I have already said it, he who wants to understand it should understand it, and he who does not want to understand it should not understand it.’
‘Yes, yes, you have explained it and it has been clear, but we are asking you, on the advice of those who know, that we go out together." (She replies:) "I'm not going to do it’. That's it.”
Despite Rubiales’ resignation and the removal of contentious head coach Jorge Vilda, the world champions have been subject to shocking treatment since the summer.
Jenni Hermoso has responded to being left out of the Spain squad (Getty Images)Ahead of the most recent international break, 39 players, including the World Cup winning squad, declared a boycott of national team duties until a root-and-branch reform of the federation was conducted, insisting they “do not yet feel they are “in a safe place”.
However, their wishes were ignored as interim manager Montse Tomé named her 21-player squad featuring a majority of boycotting players.
Hermoso, after weeks of vicious media scrutiny, was omitted from Tomé's squad her own "protection"; a decision the player questioned outright.
"Protect me from what? And from whom?," she wrote on social media. "We have been searching for weeks – months, even – for protection from the RFEF that never came. The people who now ask us to trust them are the same ones who today disclosed a list of players who have asked NOT to be called up."
She added: "The players are certain that this is yet another strategy of division and manipulation to intimidate and threaten us with legal repercussions and economic sanctions. It is yet more irrefutable proof that shows that even today, nothing has changed."
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Spain won both of their Nations League matches, with a 3-2 victory over the summer's third-place team Sweden before thrashing Switzerland 5-0 at home.
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