Spain Football Kiss “stained with the Victory of the World Cup, Hermoso said to Rubiales Trial

Jenni Hermoso told the essay of the former Spanish football leader Luis Rubiales that the kiss he had given him during the 2023 World Cup “stained one of the happiest days of my life”.

Rubiales, the former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, was tried Monday in Madrid in Madrid about the kiss, Accused of sexual assault and coercion.

Appearing as the first witness to the trial, Hermoso said: “My boss kissed me, and that should not happen in a social or work framework.”

Rubials sparked a major controversy when he kissed the athlete on his lips while the players received their World Cup medals in Australia, triggering demonstrations and calls to his resignation. He denies any reprehensible act.

Hermoso told court that she had never given permission to be kissed and felt “disrespectful” as a woman.

“I have heard nothing or understand,” she said.

“The next thing he did was to grasp me by the ears and kiss me on the mouth.”

She continued: “A kiss on the lips is only given when I decide”.

“No one came to ask me how I was” after kissing it, she said to the trial.

The footballer said that she felt “completely abandoned by the Federation”.

Hermoso added that his life had been “pending” until the start of the trial on Monday.

She said that she had received death threats that prompted her to leave Madrid with her family. She now plays in Mexico.

Prosecutors ask Rubials, 47, to receive a one -year prison sentence for sexual assault.

They also call to have a sentence of a year and a half for coercion, for having allegedly tried to put pressure on hermoso to say publicly that the kiss was consensual.

Rubials denies the charges.

At the time, Rubiales said that the kiss had been consensual and denounced a so-called witch hunt by “false feminism”, before resigning from his position.

Three of his former colleagues are also in trial accused of having forced Hermoso to say that the kiss was consensual.

Jorge Vilda, coach of the World Cup winner team, Rubén Rivera, the former Marketing Chief of the Federation, and the former sports director, Albert Luque denies all the accusations.

The trial takes place until February 19.