The trial for the non-consensual kiss of the former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Luis Rubiales, to the Spanish national team player Jennifer Hermoso after the final of the last World Cup, held on August 20 of last year in Sydney (Australia) already has a start date. The National Court has set for February 3, 2025, almost eight months from now, the start of the oral hearing in which, along with Rubiales, the then sports director of the men’s team will also sit on the dock. , Albert Luque; the former coach of the women’s team Jorge Vilda and the former marketing manager of the Federation Rubén Rivera for the subsequent coercion of the soccer player. The Central Criminal Court plans for the trial to last 11 days and end on the 19th of the same month.
The Prosecutor’s Office requests two and a half years in prison for Rubiales for the crimes of sexual assault and coercion, and one and a half years for the other three prosecuted for this last criminal offense. In addition, it requested that the four defendants be prohibited from communicating with Hermoso, as well as a prohibition on approaching her or remaining in its vicinity within a radius of 200 meters for seven years and six months in the case of the former president of the federation and four years in the cases of Luque, Vilda and Rivera. It also proposes special disqualification for the four from working in the sports field during the time of their sentence. Rubiales has another open judicial front, in this case in a court in Majadahonda (Madrid) in which he is being investigated for alleged irregularities in the RFEF during his mandate (2018-2023) within Operation Brodie against corruption.
In the order from last March in which he proposed judging Rubiales and his three collaborators, the judge of the National Court Francisco de Jorge, instructor of the summary, indicated in the account of events that, during the protocol greeting prior to the presentation of the trophy of world champions, the then president of the federation “held the player’s head with both hands, at the height of her ears, and in a surprising and unexpected way he placed a kiss on the player’s lips, which she did not notice. the defendant’s intention to kiss her on the lips nor did he give his consent to do so.” The magistrate highlighted that the player, “disconcerted and surprised,” did not have time to react and that although “she tried to downplay its importance at first and continue celebrating the team’s historic triumph,” the passing of the hours “gave way to to discomfort and the feeling of having been offended.”
The judge added that on the flight back to Spain, Rubiales tried to get Hermoso to agree “to make a public demonstration, carried out jointly with him, stating that the kiss had been consensual, to which the player refused, expressing her discomfort.” The then federation president then supposedly asked Vilda, still the coach at that time, to speak with the soccer player’s brother “to convince her to participate in making a video with the intended content.” This is what Vilda supposedly did, warning Hermoso’s relative that, if he did not do so, “his refusal would have negative consequences for her and he would experience harm to her professional career as a soccer player.”
Once in Spain, the judge considered that Rivera, head of marketing for the RFEF and also accused, also asked Hermoso “repeatedly and persistently” to participate in the exculpatory video for Rubiales, pressure in which the fourth allegedly participated later. of those involved, Albert Luque. He even showed up at the hotel where the player was staying during a trip to force her to talk to him. This manager also tried to convince a friend of the soccer player to convince her about her. Given her refusal, he “sent a WhatsApp (telephony application) message to Jennifer’s friend, insisting on her request for help to justify Luis Rubiales’s behavior, expressing his anger, accusing her of being a bad person, wishing her to be very well.” alone in life and announcing to him that he will be happy for that to happen.”
For all this, the magistrate concluded that there were “solid indications” that the kiss on the player “was not consensual and was a unilateral and surprising initiative” by the top executive of Spanish football. Regarding the other three defendants, the judge believes that they allegedly participated in a series of maneuvers to try to “break the will” of Hermoso. “The pressures to which the player was subjected created a situation of anxiety and intense stress,” the instructor highlighted in his judicial resolution.
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