Jenni Hermoso, winner of the Women’s Football World Cup with the Spain national team, confronted the former chief of the country’s football federation, Luis Rubiales, at the leader’s trial, saying he did not agree with the Kiss given by him and that triggered a national reaction against sexism in sport.
“I knew I was being kissed by my boss and this should not happen in any social or work environment,” Hermoso said about the live meeting for millions of people around the world at the World Cup awards ceremony 2023, in Australia.
“I think it was a moment that launched one of the happiest days of my life,” the 34 -year -old striker told Madrid’s Superior Court, while Rubiales made notes without looking at her.
Rubiales, 47, is accused of sexual aggression and trying to coerce hermoso – with the help of three other men – to declare that the kiss had been consensual.
Although he sorry for being overly effusive, Rubiales denies these criminal accusations and put himself as a scapegoat.
Asked by a prosecutor in the Higher Court of Spain if she had agreed with the kiss, Hermoso replied, “Never.”
“I didn’t hear or understand anything,” she added, looking nervous at first, but then calm, while answering the questions for more than two hours. “The next thing he did was grab me by the ears and kiss me in the mouth … I felt disrespected.”
Victory in the overshadowed World Cup
Rubiales said the kiss was consensual and, then, he initially mocked critics as “idiots” before writing an apology when the case exploded.
Interrogated by the defense about a video in the locker room in which she seems to say “okay” when asked what Rubiales said at the moment, Hermoso said he had also explained that he had not liked it.
The scandal overshadowed Spain’s first victory in the female World Cup and was an inflection point for the efforts of Spanish players to expose sexism and achieve parity with fellow men.
“All of this made me not enjoying being a world champion after returning to Madrid,” said Hermoso, who plays in a Mexican club and the Spanish team.
Rubiales and his co-defendants-former female coach Jorge Vilda, former sports director of RFEF (Spanish Football Federation) Albert Luque and former RFEF Marketing Director Ruben Rivera-will testify from 12 February.
Some sectors of Spanish society, including right -wing parties, described the trial as a witch hunt, saying that the kiss was rude, worst, but not a crime. Some Rubiales supporters on social networks point to a photo of Hermoso on the team bus showing a kiss meme on his phone and laughing.
In his statement, Hermoso said that, in the midst of euphoria and champagne in the locker room, the teammates initially moved the kiss. But she said one of them, Irene Paredes, intervened, saying, “Stop, that’s serious.”
The pressure from Rubiales and RFEF to appease the scandal began almost immediately, said Hermoso, reporting how she was called aside and requested to consent to a statement minimizing the incident, which she said she refused.
Arrest request
Hermoso said he noticed the extent of the scandal during the flight home, when he noticed a movement in the executive class section they were in, with people huddled around the Rubiales seat and their daughters crying.
At one point, she said she went to the bathroom and found Rubiales, who asked him to record a video with him because she was being accused of assault on social media.
“I said no, I was going to do anything, that I wasn’t the cause of it,” Hermoso told court.
She said Rubiales said she would talk to her family and she asked him to leave them out of it.
The prosecution is asking for two and a half years in prison to Rubiales.
The scandal caused a strike of Hermoso’s teammates and caused several heads to roll in the federation, with Rubiales and his right and successor being fired and a woman named to train the female team for the first time.
(Reportagem de David Latona, Emma Pinedo, Guillermo Martinez and Michael Gore)
