February 7 – Because the trial of disgraced former Spanish FA (RFEF) chief Luis Rubiales moved in direction of the tip of its first week, teammates of Jenni Hermoso corroborated her account of the notorious World Cup kiss once they testified on Thursday.
Rubiales has been accused of sexual assault and coercion for kissing Hermoso on the lips in the course of the Girls’s World Cup trophy presentation in Sydney final 12 months.
Rubiales was suspended by FIFA and at last resigned but has at all times maintained his actions have been consensual.
The prosecution alleges that Rubiales, 47, and three different RFEF staff – the previous Spain girls’s coach Jorge Vilda, the previous Newcastle United ahead and ex-RFEF sporting director Luque and former advertising and marketing director Ruben Rivera – coerced Hermoso into publicly supporting Rubiales’ model of the incident. Rubiales, Luque, Rivera and Vilda all deny any wrongdoing.
Defender Irene Paredes recalled the remedy her teammate confronted by federation officers within the days after the World Cup last.
“On the airplane she was already very overwhelmed and telling us that they wouldn’t depart her alone, they wouldn’t cease,” Paredes mentioned.
“Jenni was frightened, she was upset,” she added. “I noticed her cry as she advised us this, as a result of it was a problem that was weighing on her and what she needed was to have fun the triumph we had simply achieved.”
Alexia Putellas, two-time world participant of the 12 months, advised how Hermoso wept on the flight dwelling to Spain from the victory in Australia as a result of Rubiales allegedly tried to get her to make a video with him to reply to the general public criticism that erupted after he grabbed her head and positioned a kiss on her lips earlier than a world televised viewers.
“She mentioned how (Rubiales) wouldn’t cease telling her his model of the occasions and asking her to come back out and say that she had consented to the kiss, that she ought to do it for his daughters,” Putellas mentioned.
The trial continues with Rubiales set to provide proof subsequent week.
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