Jennifer Hermoso, the Spanish soccer star who was forcibly kissed by Luis Rubiales, her nation’s former high soccer official, testified as his trial opened on Monday that he had “ruined one of many happiest days of my life” — her staff’s victory within the 2023 Girls’s World Cup.
Ms. Hermoso described her horror on the sudden kiss from Mr. Rubiales, who’s accused of sexual assault and coercion. She additionally testified in regards to the misery she felt after Mr. Rubiales and different Spanish soccer leaders waged what she known as an intense marketing campaign for her to publicly assist him after the kiss ignited a social media storm.
“I felt disrespected,” Ms. Hermoso, 34, stated in televised testimony on the trial exterior Madrid, including, “I didn’t search for that act, nor did I anticipate it.”
The kiss set off a nationwide scandal, deepened debates about longstanding sexism in Spanish soccer and have become a watershed second in Spain’s #MeToo motion. Now, lower than a yr and a half later, Mr. Rubiales is considered one of 4 former Spanish soccer officers on trial.
Mr. Rubiales, 47, faces two and a half years in jail if convicted. The opposite three males, who embrace Jorge Vilda, the staff’s coach on the 2023 World Cup, are accused of coercion. Every might face 18 months.
Ms. Hermoso has lengthy stated that the kiss was not consensual, which Mr. Rubiales has disputed.
“I couldn’t react — it was a thousandth of a second,” she testified.
Mr. Rubiales threatened to ship individuals to speak to her household, she testified, and begged her to make a video enjoying it down. She additionally spoke of what she noticed as a possible punishment for her refusal: A month after the kiss, she was briefly left off the nationwide staff’s roster.
“I used to be refusing to do one thing that my boss wished to do,” she stated, including that she had acquired dying threats. “I used to be afraid to exit on the street in case somebody was chasing me.”
However through the medals ceremony after the ultimate, Mr. Rubiales grabbed and kissed Ms. Hermoso — the nationwide staff’s report scorer — on the lips. In a video taken after the match, she stated, “I didn’t like that!”
The general public response was swift and livid.
For a lot of, the kiss was a reminder of the repeated sexism scandals that had ripped by way of Spanish soccer. Some known as on Mr. Rubiales to resign. Irene Montero, who was the Spanish equality minister and is now a member of the European Parliament, described the kiss as “sexual violence” in a social media put up.
Initially, Mr. Rubiales supplied a tepid apology and resisted calls to resign. Spain’s soccer federation launched an announcement that quoted Ms. Hermoso calling it “a very spontaneous mutual gesture.”
However on the trial on Monday, Ms. Hermoso stated that she had by no means accredited the assertion, including that she knew instantly that the act was not regular. “My boss was kissing me,” she stated. “This could not occur.”
After the kiss, dozens of Spanish soccer gamers stated that they’d refuse to play for his or her nation till the “present managers” stepped apart, which many noticed as a reference to Mr. Rubiales and Mr. Vilda.
Ms. Hermoso filed a felony criticism of sexual assault in opposition to Mr. Rubiales. “At no time did I consent to the kiss that he gave me,” she stated.
Because the public strain mounted, Mr. Rubiales’s assist thinned. FIFA, soccer’s world governing physique, suspended him and later barred him from the game for 3 years. Mr. Vilda was fired. Lower than a month after the kiss, Mr. Rubiales resigned as president of Spain’s soccer federation and in addition as a vp of UEFA, European soccer’s governing physique.
Mr. Rubiales was additionally briefly arrested final yr in a wide-ranging investigation into allegations of corruption and cash laundering whereas he led soccer in Spain. These investigations are persevering with, although no prices have been introduced in opposition to him. He has denied wrongdoing.
Mr. Rubiales may not face jail time, even when he’s convicted. In Spain, if somebody and not using a felony report is sentenced to 2 years or much less, they normally don’t go to jail.
Ms. Hermoso, nonetheless, described the kiss, and the general public response, as an everlasting trauma. “My life has been on standby,” she stated. “And, truthfully, I’ve not been capable of dwell freely.”
Aritz Parra and Nader Ibrahim contributed analysis.
