Soccer

Spanish judge wants former soccer boss Luis Rubiales to stand trial for kiss after Women’s World Cup final

High court judge also seeks a trial for three men accused of putting pressure on Jenni Hermoso to say kiss was consensual

Former president of the Spanish football federation Luis Rubiales. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images
Former president of the Spanish football federation Luis Rubiales. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images
Thu Jan 25 2024 - 12:50

A Spanish high court judge proposed on Thursday that former football federation chief Luis Rubiales stand trial over the kiss he planted on player Jennifer Hermoso’s lips after Spain’s victory in the Women’s World Cup.

The court said in a statement that the judge, Francisco de Jorge, also sought a trial for former women’s team coach Jorge Vilda, as well as Albert Luque, the men’s team’s sport director, and Ruben Rivera, the federation’s marketing chief, for pressuring Hermoso to say the kiss was consensual.

The court quoted the judge as saying that, contrary to Rubiales’s statements, the investigation showed the kiss “was not consensual and was a unilateral and surprising initiative”.

Prosecutors and lawyers can still present their arguments, after which the court will decide whether and when to call the trial. Until now, the case has been handled by an investigative judge.

READ MORE

The 33-year-old forward – Spain’s all-time top scorer – lodged a criminal complaint of sexual assault and coercion in September over the kiss on the winners’ podium on August 20th, saying she felt “vulnerable and a victim of an aggression”.

The case shocked the sporting world and society in Spain and abroad, prompting protests and further accusations by women that prominent or powerful men had forced intimacy on them.

In Spain, the social media hashtag #SeAcabo ("It's over") became a rallying cry.

Beside the kiss itself, the judge found evidence Rubiales and the co-defendants may have committed a related offence in their co-ordinated action to make Hermoso “record a video in which she would say the kiss was consensual”.

Hermoso refused and eventually filed the criminal complaint. - Reuters

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2024