Former football chief Luis Rubiales found guilty of kissing Jenni Hermoso at Women’s World Cup without consent
Jess Hardiman
Featured Image Credit: Noemi Llamas/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images
Luis Rubiales has been found guilty over kissing Jenni Hermoso without her consent, following Spain's win in the Women's World Cup final back in 2023.
After Hermoso received her medal from FIFA president Gianni Infantino, Rubiales was seen grabbing hold of her head and kissing her.
The incident led to international backlash for Rubiales, who eventually resigned as president of the Spanish Football Federation.
Rubiales had previously apologised for what happened, saying in a video released by the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF): "We are facing a historic event, one of the happiest days in Spanish football.
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“We are world champions, something for which we have been working hard and for which we feel proud.
"But there is also a fact that I have to regret.
“And that is all what happened between me and a player, with whom there is a magnificent relationship and where I was surely wrong.
"In a moment of maximum effusiveness without any bad intentions and no bad faith, it happened in a very spontaneous way.
"Here we did not understand the controversy and there has been a commotion outside… that if there are people who have felt damaged because of this, I have to apologise and learn from this, there is no other option.
"I have to learn from this and understand that when I am the president of an institution as important as the Federation, I have to be more careful in ceremonies and this type of issue."
The former football chief has now been ordered to pay a fine of more than €10,000 (£8,274).
Rubiales was also accused coercing Hermoso into saying the kiss had been consensual, but was acquitted of this charge.
In a previous statement of her own, Hermoso had hit back at Rubiales, saying it was not consensual.
She said: "The situation left me in shock because of the context of the celebration, and with the time passed, and those initial feelings being able to sink, I feel the need to denounce this as I feel that no one, in no work space, sporting or social, should be a victim to this time of nonconsensual behaviour.
"I felt vulnerable and a victim of aggression, an impulsive act, sexist, out of place and without any type of consent from my part. In short, I wasn’t respected."