Former RFEF President Luis Rubiales has given his testimony to the court in recent days, and described his non-consensual kiss with Spain star Jenni Hermoso as “something natural between two people who have been coexisting for a long time.”
Various members of the RFEF staff, Spain squad and coaching staff have been called to give their versions of events to the court, with the public prosecutor accusing Rubiales of sexual assault and coercion. Alexia Putellas, Irene Paredes and Misa Rodriguez all appeared in court testifying that they had seen pressure applied to Hermoso to publicly downplay the incident.
El Espanol (via Sport) claim they have had access to Rubiales’ statements.
“I was hugging the players, the coach, when she passes by. She comes towards me to give me a hug. We hug, she lifts me up and I make a gesture so as not to fall, all this happens during a conversation in which I remind her that without her weg wouldn’t have won the World Cup. So I ask her, I ask her. And she tells me okay.”
“She grabs me wherever she can, I grab her too and there’s no more. Two or three minutes later, they all picked me up and threw me in the air. And at that moment I don’t say that they shouldn’t touch me, excuse my language, my ass, my knees, or my back. We have won a World Cup and the tremendous euphoria and joy there is is indescribable.”
Rubiales goes on to compare the moment of euphoria to winning the lottery or the return of peace.
“It happened as naturally as when you win the Lottery or the war in Ukraine is over or you win a World Cup, this effusiveness, this spontaneity. She said it herself, she told me that it was okay,” Rubiales finished.
After the events, Rubiales initially called those making a big deal out of the incident as ‘idiots’, and then later apologised in case anyone was offended, claiming it was a mistake. Since he has changed his story, saying that he talked about it at the time with Hermoso, even though it was spontaneous.
Rubiales was forced out of his position by public pressure, a FIFA suspension and a request from the RFEF to hand in his resignation, after he declared in a general assembly that ‘false feminism’ was responsible for the reaction.
