Rubiales trial: Hermoso reiterates in court that she did not consent to World Cup kiss

The trial of former Spanish football federation president, Luis Rubiales, got underway on Monday.

Rubiales is accused of sexual assault for forcibly kissing footballer Jenni Hermoso on the lips after Spain won the World Cup in 2023, and of coercion, for allegedly publishing a statement on Hermoso's behalf without her sign-off or input and for pressuring her family into attempting to get her to make a public statement to calm the controversy. 

In the National Court just outside Madrid on Monday, footballer Jenni Hermoso reiterated that she never consented to the kiss. "I was unable to react at any time," she said.

"I felt that it was completely out of context, that my boss was kissing me, and that should not happen in any social or work environment," she said in her testimony.

Hermoso also recounted the pressure she received from Rubiales and his entourage to calm the controversy. Hermoso stated that she did not write "a single word" of the statement that was sent about the kiss shortly after it happened.

"It was time to greet the authorities on the platform [for the trophy presentation]," Hermoso testified. "I greeted the queen, her daughter, and then I met Rubiales. We hugged and I told him 'we've done well', we jumped, and when we got down he told me 'we won the World Cup thanks to you'. Then it was his hands on my ears, and the subsequent kiss," she explained, insisting that for her, a kiss on the lips goes beyond a friendly or polite greeting.

During the testimony, the prosecutor asked the footballer if Rubiales asked her if she could kiss him, and Hermoso replied that at that moment she "neither heard nor understood anything." "Immediately, when he put his hands on my ears, it was the act of kissing on the mouth", she remarked. She added that if he had asked her, she would have refused.

Hermoso said the Rubiales kiss made her feel "disrespected" and tarnished one of the "happiest" moments of her life.

The former Barça striker explained that when the celebrations ended she went to the dressing room and was called by the federation's marketing manager, Ana Álvarez, because Rubiales wanted to speak to her. "She told me that there was a lot of talk (about the kiss) on social media, that it was getting messy, and that they could stop it somehow. There I already told her that she would 'get over it' because what had happened was not right," she indicated.

For the footballer, the joy of having won the World Cup meant that she could be happy right after the kiss and in the subsequent celebrations. However, she admitted to having had "opposite feelings" due to the joy of the victory and the suffering due to the non-consensual kiss.

Statement and video

Hermoso explained that during a stopover on the flight back to Spain, Rubiales asked her to help him by making a video with him because he was being described as a sexual harasser. "I told him no, that I wouldn't do anything, that I hadn't caused anything, that I hadn't wanted that moment and that it wasn't up to me to make a video, that if he wanted to, he could do it. He asked me to do it for his daughters," she explained. "I told him I was sorry, but that I wouldn't do it."

"He also said something that hurt me the most, that was 'you and I like the same thing,' as if saying it didn't matter anymore," she added.

According to Hermoso, after the kiss controversy she was no longer called up by the national team. "Obviously, of course it could have had many consequences," she explained before affirming that Rubiales' power was great within the Spanish Football Federation. In this sense, she said that after refusing to make the joint video, the president of the RFEF told her that he would speak to her family, specifically her brother.

"Very unprotected"

"Nobody, no one came to ask me how I was," Hermoso lamented. "I felt very unprotected by the federation, which was supposed to be my safe place, and no one asked me anything," she criticized in her statement before the judge.

Hermoso also assured that from "day one" she had decided to file a criminal complaint against Rubiales for not consenting to the kiss.

"The context in which we were was too big to be able to decide something like being here today, but I already spoke with my lawyers and my agency. The process was long before the call from the Public Prosecutor's Office," she said.

Forced kiss 

After the World Cup final on August 20, which Spain won 1-0 against England to become world champions for the first time, Luis Rubiales grabbed Hermoso's head and kissed her on the lips during the medal ceremony.

The federation chief posted an apology video from the Doha airport, which drew criticism for its apparent lack of sincerity or confession of wrongdoing. It later emerged that Rubiales pressured Hermoso to appear alongside him in the video, which she did not do, while Spanish team manager Jorge Vilda also pressured the player's family up to three times for the same motive.

Rubiales then refused to resign during an explosive speech given at an RFEF extraordinary general meeting, contrary to all expectations, while railing against the "false feminism" which he said was trying to "socially assassinate" him.

The RFEF head also claimed the kiss was consensual.

Following his refusal to step down, 81 Spanish players announced they would not be returning to the national team fold until there were significant changes in the directorship of the organization. The federation then threatened legal action against the players. 

The Spanish Football Federation released various statements brandishing Hermoso a liar. In a personal statement, unlike most that were sent through her union, Hermoso denied that the kiss was consensual and explained that she felt the victim of an assault.