Ex-Spanish football chief Luis Rubiales says Jenni Hermoso DID consent to his infamous

Former Spanish football chief Luis Rubiales has said in court that he was ‘totally sure’ that player Jenni Hermoso consented to him kissing her on the lips after her team won the World Cup in 2023.

Rubiales told Spain’s National Court that at the tournament’s medal ceremony he asked Hermoso ‘if I can give you a kiss, and she said ‘OK’, that’s what happened’. 

Hermoso earlier told the court that she ‘never’ agreed to the kiss and that she had felt ‘disrespected’ by it.

Rubiales, who was the head of the Spanish Football Association at the time of the tournament in Australia, resigned in disgrace later that year.

Prosecutors are seeking two and a half years in prison against Rubiales for sexual assault for the forced kiss and allegedly coercing Hermoso to downplay the incident. 

‘She squeezed me very tightly under my armpits, she lifted me, and when I came down I asked her if I can give you a kiss, and she said ‘OK’, that’s what happened,’ he said.

‘What happened had no importance neither for me nor for her,’ Rubiales added during his highly anticipated testimony, describing the kiss as ‘an act of affection’.

Rubiales also denies the charge of coercion levelled against him, former women’s team manager Jorge Vilda and two ex-federation officials.

While Rubiales has insisted that the kiss was neither illegal nor immoral, the football boss admitted that it had been a mistake.

‘It was a mistake, I was the president of the federation and from the outset I recognised it was a mistake,’ he said.

‘I acted like an athlete who was a member of the group and I should have adopted a more institutional role.’

‘But that’s not what you said to the press is it?’ the prosecutor pressed him, adding that he ‘didn’t look remorseful or upset’. 

Rubiales admitted he had not said that to the press at the time but defended himself saying he had been focussing on the breaking news of the death of one of the players’ fathers.