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Rubiales was ordered to pay a fine and not go near or contact Hermoso for a year
Luis Rubiales, the former president of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), was found guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting Jenni Hermoso of Spain’s women’s national team after kissing her on the lips without her consent following the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
Rubiales, 47, was ordered to not go within 200 meters of Hermoso or contact her for a year. He was also fined €10,000 ($10,437.05 USD). He was acquitted of coercion after being accused of trying to pressure Hermoso into saying that the kiss was consensual.
Prosecutors were seeking a sentence of one year for sexual assault and 18 months for the alleged coercion. Rubiales is able to appeal the sentence to the same court.
Jorge Vilda, the former women’s national team head coach; Albert Luque, the ex-sporting director of the Spanish Football Federation; and the federation’s former marketing chief, Rubén Rivera, were also cleared of coercion after being accused of pressuring Hermoso to say the kiss was consensual.
(Europa Press News via Getty Images)
Hermoso testified last week saying that she felt “disrespected” and that the unwanted kiss “stained one of the happiest days of my life.”
Spain took home its first Women’s World Cup in 2023, but celebrations were marred when Rubiales forcibly kissed Hermoso on stage during the trophy ceremony. The behavior sparked outrage in Spain, raised questions of sexism throughout the country and led the Spanish women’s national team to boycott international play.
Rubiales, facing intense pressure in the wake of the kiss, resigned as president of the RFEF three weeks after the incident. He repeatedly denied the charges, saying at one point that he was the victim of a witch hunt led by “false feminists.”
Hermoso, 34, has consistently said that the kiss was not consensual and said last week that she “couldn’t react” as Rubiales kissed her.
“I didn’t hear or understand anything,” Hermoso said. “The next thing he did was to grab me by the ears and kiss me on the mouth.”
Hermoso testified that Rubiales spoke to her on the plane from Sydney, Australia, where the final had taken place, back to Spain. There, he asked her to help him smooth things over publicly, saying that people were calling him “an aggressor,” but she refused.
Hermoso said that it was “important” for her to continue celebrating the World Cup win with her teammates even after the incident. But since returning to Spain, she said that her life has been on standby due to the media circus around the incident. Hermoso plays for Tigres in Mexico’s Liga MX Femenil, where she can avoid much of the attention, but that goes away when she returns to Madrid.
“I have not been able to really live freely,” she said in court.
FIFA already banned Rubiales from soccer for three years, but that is set to lapse in 2026.
