On Monday, Jenni Hermoso’s testimony to Spanish prosecutors was leaked. The statements came amid the ongoing trial into allegations of sexual assault and coercion for Luis Rubiales, after Hermoso decided to press charges after he was kiss without her consent by the former President of the Spanish Football Federation.
In her testimony, Hermoso detailed incidents in which she felt that Rubiales, and former Spain head coach Jorge Vilda, attempted to coerce her into say that the kiss between the two was consensual, with Relevo carrying the quotes.
“We travelled in business class and they (Rubiales and his collaborators), were at the front. I got up to the bathroom and he was standing, talking to some of them. He said, ‘Jenni, can you come? The opinion that is being formed with the kiss – you have to help me and record a video with me in Doha, because they are calling me a stalker, a rapist.’ I said no and there, I was even nervous, I felt uncomfortable.”
Hermoso also recounted the efforts that Rubiales made in his attempt to persuade her.
“I will never forget it, because she told me, ‘I have done many things for women’s football. I am a good person, so are you. You have to help me, you have to do it for my two daughters who are crying back there on the plane.'”
Hermoso also revealed that Rubiales instructed Vilda to “circle the plane” to look for Hermoso’s brother, and the La Roja recounted what Vilda said to her family.
“(They said) that I have always been very good, that I deserved this (the World Cup), that they tried to convince me to help the kiss be downplayed and that they convinced me that I had to speak.
“My brother told me that I was letting him know that if I helped him, I could do well, which was what I had to do, and that he would somehow convince me to help him.”
The investigation into Rubiales will have several witnesses, but no testimony will be more important than that of Hermoso, the unfortunate and unwilling centre of the whole terrible affair.
