Luis Rubiales, the former head of Spain’s national soccer federation who sullied the women’s team’s World Cup victory in 2023 by planting an unwanted kiss on player Jenni Hermoso’s lips during the medal ceremony, was found guilt Thursday of sexual assault for the act.
Spain’s High Court convicted Rubiales of assault for the forced kiss and fined him 10,800 euros ($11,300).
Rubiales was also ordered to not come within 650 feet of Hermoso, and he cannot contact her for a year, under the court’s order. His lawyer, Olga Tubau Martinez, announced shortly after the verdict that he would be appealing the court’s decision.
Matias Chiofalo/Europa Press/Getty
Rubiales was acquitted, alongside three other defendants, on the separate charge of coercion after Hermoso accused him of trying to force her to support him in the aftermath of the kiss, which became one of the biggest scandals in the history of Spanish soccer.
Prosecutors had pushed for Rubiales to be imprisoned for two-and-a-half years.
Hermoso, 34, who plays in the Mexican soccer league as well as for her national team, said she received death threats as the backlash against Rubiales, and what has been seen as institutional sexism in Spanish sports, grew.
Rubiales and his supporters — including his mother, who went on a hunger strike in a church to protest the treatment of her son — were unapologetic, describing the kiss as “a mutual and consented act,” and calling those who disagreed “idiots and stupid people.”
Rubiales pleaded not guilty to all of the charges, maintaining during the trial in Madrid that he was “absolutely sure that she gave me her permission.”
During her testimony, Hermoso told the court that “one of the happiest days of my life was tarnished, and I think it’s very important for me to say that I never sought, much less expected, that this would happen. I think personally that it was a lack of respect.”
“I’d spent years fighting to win titles for my team, like the World Cup,” she said. “But all that’s happened to me means that I just haven’t been able to enjoy any of it from the moment I set foot back in Madrid. I’m a world champion, but it seems that, even to this day, my life has been on standby. I honestly haven’t been able to live freely.”
