Former RFEF President Luis Rubiales has claimed that the legal case and backlash from his kissing of Jenni Hermoso without her consent, and then coercion of Hermoso and her family to speak in his favour, was a revenge plan hatched by the players. Rubiales was suspended from action by the Ministry for Sport and FIFA, while he is currently involved in a legal process that could see him jailed for more than five years, if he is convicted for the alleged sexual assault and coercion.
In an interview with Alvise Perez, Rubiales explained that the Spain players had lied in order to get revenge for not sacking manager at the time Jorge Vilda, with Marca carrying his comments.
“They are lying. Yes, they asked me for Jorge Vilda’s head. Since I didn’t give it to them, they saw the opportunity and took revenge.”
“The kiss was consensual. I asked her and she said “okay.” But the media were ordered to say it wasn’t.”
Hermoso has stated that it was not consensual, while the striking Spain players at the time have denied asking for Vilda to lose his job. The decision to sack Vilda would eventually be taken by interim president Pedro Rocha. The head of the English FA has also testified against him in the FIFA disciplinary process, when in theory Debbie Hewitt would have no ulterior motive.
Mixing motives, Rubiales also claimed that the reason his case was kept in the news cycle for so long in order to distract from an amnisty deal done with Catalan politicians who organised an independence referendum in 2017 without permission from the Federal Government – they were previously to be charged with treason against the Spanish crown.
“My case [being talked about] for two or three months is highly explainable to justify the fact that little was said about other things. There was a lot of talk about my thing and very little about other much more important things.”
He would go on to specify that this was the amnisty deal, recently struck by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
“For me it is a blow to the separation of powers. Therefore, a democratic state that has its basis in the separation of powers cannot afford the luxury of swearing in or not swearing in a certain president… going against their own country. All Spaniards regret it, many left-wing voters do not understand this.”
Rubiales theory is not backed up by facts at this time. There were large protests in Madrid over the amnisty deal, which received round the clock coverage from the Spanish press. In addition, press outside of Catalonia being almost exclusively anti-independence movement in Catalonia. Those same media outlets, and with the exception of El Espanol, were critical of Rubiales, including both right and left-leaning outlets.
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