Luis Rubiales, the former president of the Spanish Football Federation, has been found guilty of sexually assaulting the footballer Jenni Hermoso by kissing her on the lips after Spain’s women’s team won the World Cup.
Rubiales, who was acquitted of coercion, was ordered to pay a fine of more than €10,000. He was also ordered not to go within 200 metres of Hermoso for a year, and to refrain from contacting her for 12 months. Rubiales can appeal against the sentence before the same court.
The episode, which overshadowed the team’s triumph in August 2023 and prompted a national and international debate on sexism and consent, resulted in Hermoso receiving death threats and eventually led Rubiales to resign as the head of the federation.
Rubiales, 47, was accused of sexual assault and of coercing Hermoso to downplay what happened after the kiss made headlines around the world. Prosecutors had sought a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence – one year for sexual assault and 18 months for the alleged coercion.
Rubiales, a former player, has always insisted the kiss on Hermoso’s lips after the final in Sydney was consensual.
“I am absolutely sure that she gave me her permission,” Rubiales told the court in Madrid earlier this month. “In that moment it was something completely spontaneous.”
Three other people who had also been tried for allegedly pressuring Hermoso to say the kiss was consensual – the former head coach of the women’s national team Jorge Vilda; the former Spanish football federation sporting director Albert Luque; and the federation’s former marketing chief Rubén Rivera – were cleared of coercion.
Source: The Guardian