Spain’s ex-football boss Rubiales guilty of sexual assault, fined for World Cup kiss
Rubiales also ordered to stay 200 metres away from player Jenni Hermoso and not to communicate with her for a year. He said he would appeal
Spain’s High Court has found former soccer federation boss Luis Rubiales guilty of sexual assault for kissing player Jenni Hermoso without her consent and fined him more than €10,000 (US$10,434) in a case which caused a nationwide furore.
It acquitted him of a charge of coercion, the court said in a statement on Thursday.
Rubiales said he would appeal the ruling.
Prosecutors had sought a prison sentence for Rubiales, 47, over the incident that provoked a heated debate in Spain about sexism in women’s football and wider Spanish society and gave momentum to a “Me Too” movement in the country.
The court said it had also acquitted Rubiales’ three co-defendants who were accused of attempting to coerce Hermoso into saying the kiss, at the 2023 World Cup awards ceremony in Sydney, Australia was consensual. The ensuing scandal overshadowed Spain’s victory in the tournament.
Rubiales has maintained throughout this month’s trial that Hermoso had consented to be kissed amid the celebrations, but the judge said he believed Hermoso’s testimony that she had not.
Judge Jose Manuel Fernandez-Prieto ruled that the sexual assault, “while always reproachable” was of minor intensity as there was no violence or intimidation.