Luis Rubiales assures World Cup kiss was consensual in trial testimony

The former Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) president, Luis Rubiales, is testifying on Tuesday in his trial for sexual assault and coercion for the kiss on player Jenni Hermoso in the aftermath of the World Cup Final in August 2023.

Rubiales admitted that he "was wrong" in his behavior in kissing a player while he was president of the Federation. "I behaved like an athlete who had just won a title, and for that, I made a mistake." 

Despite that, Rubiales assures there was consent in the kiss on Jenni Hermoso as the Spanish women's national team collected their World Cup Winners' medals.

Rubiales gave his version of the events: "The players were passing by, at that moment Jenni came up to me with a face like she had missed a penalty and I told her to forget that, that we had won partly thanks to her. She squeezed me, lifted me up and I asked her if I could give her a little kiss and that was it."

The former RFEF president painted this behaviour as normal in the context of reaching sporting euphoria for winning the World Cup. "I don't usually kiss my daughters like that, but I do on New Year's Eve. It happened to me with some teammates, when I was a Levante player, it happened to me when we won at the Bernabéu. But not all the time."

Rubiales reiterated that the kiss was "not forced," and admitted that he asked Jenni Hermoso to appear alongside him in a video that had the aim of calming the controversy, which Hermoso rejected to do. 

“I am absolutely sure that she gave me her permission,” Rubiales told the court in Madrid. “In that moment, it was something completely spontaneous.”

"In no case," says Rubiales, did he send the team manager Jorge Vilda to speak with Hermoso's brother, Rafa Hermoso, to pressure the player into appearing alongside the then-Federation president in the video. 

He repeated that Jenni Hermoso's attitude was one of happiness at all times, in the immediate aftermath of the kiss, in the dressing room afterwards, and in the celebrations with the team camp on the way to Ibiza and while in Ibiza enjoying a holiday. 

Lip-reading expert

Earlier in the day's session, a lip-reading expert was called to give testimony on what they understood from the video of the moment of the kiss.

The expert, who is deaf and needed an interpreter to communicate to the court, assured that they could read the lips of Rubiales well in the video. 

They said that Rubiales said to Hermoso "Te puedo dar un besito?" - "Can I give you a little kiss?" However, this is slightly different in the wording that Rubiales has always used, but similar in meaning, as the former president assured he said "piquito" in that moment, translating to "a little peck."