Members of Spain’s girls’s nationwide workforce have testified in a Madrid courtroom this week because the trial over Luis Rubiales’ pressured kiss on Jenni Hermoso on the 2023 Ladies’s World Cup ultimate begins.
Rubiales, the previous president of the Royal Spanish Soccer Federation, has been accused of sexual assault and coercion when he kissed Hermoso, one of many members of the World Cup-winning workforce, through the trophy presentation in Sydney, Australia. Hermoso, her teammates, and members of the family have described the occasion as a “stain” on an in any other case momentous event and likewise detailed a marketing campaign to maintain her quiet within the hours after the incident.
Prosecutors argue that Rubiales needs to be imprisoned for a yr for sexual assault and one other 18 months for coercion.
How did the controversy start?
Hermoso was congratulated by a number of dignitaries as she made her approach to gather her World Cup winner’s medal on Aug. 20, 2023, when Rubiales forcibly kissed her. Nearly instantly, the incident sparked outrage globally from members of the ladies’s soccer group and lots of exterior it, together with in Spain.
Many known as for Rubiales’ resignation, particularly when contemplating the allegations of sexism and poor working circumstances that Spain girls’s nationwide workforce gamers had leveled on the federation the earlier yr. Rubiales was suspended by FIFA on Aug. 26, 2023, and he lastly resigned on Sept. 10, although authorized ramifications for his actions have loomed over him since. He was additionally briefly detained by Spanish authorities in April 2024 in relation to an investigation into corruption on the federation throughout his time as president.
Jorge Vilda, the pinnacle coach of Spain’s World Cup-winning workforce, was additionally a central determine within the controversy. He was fired on Sept. 5, 2023, almost a yr after he was accused of fostering a poisonous office, and he and Rubiales had been allies throughout that tumultuous time.
What was mentioned in courtroom?
Hermoso testified on Monday and detailed the occasions of the incident, in addition to Rubiales’ try to save lots of face within the coming days.
“I greeted the queen, I greeted her daughter,” Hermoso mentioned as she recalled the trophy ceremony, per The BBC. “The subsequent factor was assembly Rubiales. The subsequent factor he did was to seize me by the ears and kiss me on the mouth. I did not hear or perceive something. A kiss on the lips is simply given once I determine so.”
The participant mentioned her teammates first mocked her for the incident, however defender Irene Paredes put an finish to it. Hermoso additionally mentioned that she was later requested to consent to a press release issued by the federation, which she refused to do, and that Rubiales additionally requested her to report a video downplaying the incident. Hermoso’s brother, Rafael, added that Vilda pressured him to speak to his sister whereas everybody was making their approach again to Spain.
“We had been speaking about soccer and the achievement of the workforce and abruptly he talked about the kiss,” he mentioned, per ESPN. “He mentioned that the president wished me to speak to Jenni to ask her to report the video collectively downplaying the kiss as a result of that will be the perfect factor for everybody. I advised him that I used to be not going to attempt to persuade her to do one thing that I additionally do not agree with.”
Paredes recalled the remedy her teammate confronted by federation officers within the days after the World Cup ultimate. Alexia Putellas, one other Spain worldwide, mentioned that the shock of the incident wore off after a celebratory journey to Ibiza.
“On the aircraft she was already very overwhelmed and telling us that they would not go away her alone, they would not cease,” Paredes mentioned, per ESPN.
The incident took its toll on Hermoso, Paredes famous.
“Jenni was apprehensive, 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 wished was to have a good time the triumph we had simply achieved.”
Hermoso added that “nobody got here to ask me how I used to be” after the kiss and that she felt “utterly deserted by the federation,” which “stained one of many happiest days of my life.”
“There was no place for me to be crying or mendacity within the nook of the dressing room.”
