February 4 – Disgraced former Spanish Soccer Affiliation (RFEF) President Luis Rubiales ruined what ought to have been “one of many happiest days” of Jenny Hermoso’s life, she instructed the primary day of the notorious “kissgate” scandal trial in Madrid.
Testifying within the trial, the 34-year-old insisted she didn’t consent to being kissed on the lips by Rubiales after profitable the 2023 Girls’s World Cup in Sydney.
The incident sparked outrage in Spain, made worldwide headlines on back and front pages and led to Rubiales being thrown out of soccer.
“I felt disrespected,” Hermoso mentioned. It “stained one of many happiest days of my life.”
Rubiales, accused of sexual assault, has denied the costs, claiming the kiss was consensual and occurred in a “second of jubilation.”
Going through immense strain, he resigned three weeks later and was banned by FIFA for 3 years, all of the whereas insisting he was the sufferer of a “witch hunt” by “false feminists.”
The incident overshadowed Spain’s first Girls’s World Cup triumph and prosecutors, Hermoso and the Spain gamers’ affiliation need a jail sentence for Rubiales, a fee of €50,000 for damages and for him to be banned from working as a sports activities official.
Rubiales is reportedly scheduled to provide proof on February 12 and the trial is anticipated to final till February 19.
“I knew I used to be being kissed by my boss and that ought to not occur in any social or work surroundings,” Hermoso mentioned in courtroom within the Spanish capital. “I didn’t hear or perceive something. A kiss on the lips is barely given once I resolve so”.
She mentioned after the incident her life was placed on maintain and that she was solely capable of escape the highlight in Mexico, the place she performs her membership soccer.
“Till at the moment evidently my life has been on standby, actually I’ve not lived freely. From the primary second I set foot in Spain I had cameras throughout me, outdoors my home, whereas I used to be having breakfast with my mom, they adopted me, they took my photograph. … I needed to depart Madrid with all my folks as a result of for a second I felt afraid in case somebody was chasing me. I acquired demise threats.”
Hermoso additionally testified that Rubiales had pressured her to make an announcement downplaying the incident amid the general public backlash towards him.
“And I instructed him no, that I wasn’t going to do something,” she mentioned. “I instructed him I used to be sorry, however I wasn’t going to do it.”
Among the many practically 20 witnesses anticipated to testify are Spain males’s nationwide coach Luis de la Fuente and a few of Hermoso’s teammates on the ladies’s group, together with former world participant of the 12 months Alexia Putellas.
Additionally on trial are former Spain ladies’s nationwide coach Jorge Vilda, former sports activities director of the Spain males’s group Albert Luque, and the federation’s former head of selling, Rubén Rivera. They’re accused of allegedly pressuring Hermoso to defend Rubiales publicly in an announcement after the incident, which she refused to do.
The prosecution claims Vilda warned Hermoso’s brother that his sister’s soccer profession would endure if she didn’t conform to report a video backing Rubiales’ declare the kiss was consensual.
Contact the author of this story, Andrew Warshaw, at moc.l1738672147labto1738672147ofdlr1738672147owedi1738672147sni@w1738672147ahsra1738672147w.wer1738672147dna1738672147