Former Spanish football chief Luis Rubiales has been found guilty of sexual assault for kissing player Jenni Hermoso without her consent after the Women’s World Cup final in 2023.
Spain’s High Court has ordered Rubiales to pay a fine of more than €10,000 (£8,274) but has acquitted him of coercion.
Prosecutors had demanded a prison sentence for Rubiales, who is to appeal the ruling, saying: “I am going to keep fighting.”
World Cup winner Hermoso, 34, previously told Rubiales’s trial in Madrid she “never” agreed to him kissing her on the lips – and the moment “tainted one of the happiest days” of her life.
Rubiales, 47, was accused of sexual assault and of then attempting to coerce Hermoso, who is Spain’s all-time top goalscorer, into declaring the kiss had been consensual.
He denied the charges, claiming the kiss on the lips was consensual and happened in a “moment of jubilation”.
Hermoso repeatedly claimed the kiss with Rubiales, a controversy which ended up overshadowing Spain’s 1-0 victory over England in August 2023, was not consensual.
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Rubiales ‘absolutely sure’ kiss was consensual
Scandal was a tipping point
The ensuing scandal eclipsed Spain’s first Women’s World Cup victory and proved a tipping point for efforts by Spain’s female players to expose sexism and achieve parity with male counterparts.
Hermoso told the High Court earlier this month she “felt disrespected” and had “never” agreed to the kiss.
“I didn’t hear or understand anything,” she said. “The next thing he did was to grab me by the ears and kiss me on the mouth.”
“I knew I was being kissed by my boss and that should not happen in any social or work environment,” she added.
“I think it was a moment that tainted one of the happiest days of my life.
“All this meant I couldn’t enjoy at all being a world champion after I landed back in Madrid.”
Hermoso was believed – but can’t reclaim her big day
This was a sexual assault by one of the most powerful men in football broadcast live around the world.
English FA chair Debbie Hewitt – on the podium in Sydney – expressed shock at the aggression.
And still Luis Rubiales believed there would be no consequence for forcing a kiss on Spain star Jenni Hermoso, defiant even as outrage grew in the days and weeks after the World Cup final.
Perhaps emboldened by the silence of the men who run football, Rubiales – rather than resigning – denigrated Hermoso. He was eventually forced to quit as Spanish federation president and ousted as president of UEFA.
And once Hermoso filed a criminal complaint, prosecutors took up her fight for justice.
The guilty verdict has, as Spain’s equality minister Ana Redondo said on Thursday, certified that “when there is no consent, there is aggression”.
Hermoso has been believed.
But there are concerns about why Rubiales and three co-defendants were acquitted of attempting to coerce Hermoso into defending him in public.
Yet the world was able to see and hear how Rubiales used his powerful platform in the days after the World Cup final to attempt to undermine Hermoso and her credibility. The judge found a lack of violent intimidation.
And with Rubiales appealing the verdict – having avoided jail for the sexual assault – it delays Hermoso’s ability to reclaim 20 August 2023 as purely a day of glory – the team’s greatest sporting achievement.
Ruairidh Barlow, the editor of Football Espana magazine, told Sky News that in the future “it [the verdict] may be something that people study and say ‘this was a moment when change came'”.
But some say the verdict was too lenient, and Mr Barlow said many were hoping an example would be made of Rubiales by giving him a punishment that “mattered a little bit more, because he earns this [his fine] in four days. A lot of people think this was a missed opportunity to go a little bit further.”
Campaigner Jane Kenyon, from Girls Out Loud, said a jail term wouldn’t make much difference and Rubiales was guilty of “invading somebody’s space and a power-play”.
“It’s about saying this is not acceptable and from this point on, we learn and behave differently in public towards women,” she said.
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Following the scandal, Rubiales eventually resigned and in October 2023 was banned from all football-related activities for three years by world governing body FIFA.
Rubiales claimed he was the victim of a “witch hunt” by “false feminists”.
The fallout from the incident led to a boycott by Spanish players of both the women’s and men’s national teams, while the case sparked protests in Spain and beyond demanding “a sport free of sexist violence”.
