Luis Rubiales, the former president of the Spanish football federation, is going to court for ‘The Kiss’. It was confirmed this week that Rubiales will stand trial in February 2025 for kissing Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the medal ceremony after Spain won the women’s football World Cup last August. Hermoso maintains the kiss was non-consensual.
Rubiales is now routinely described in articles as ‘disgraced’
Prosecutors are requesting that Rubiales pay Hermoso 50,000 euros (£42,000) in compensation and go to prison for two-and-a-half years: one year for the kiss – which, if not consensual, counts as sexual assault under Spanish law – and another 18 months for allegedly coercing Hermoso afterwards to say that it had been consensual.
This is the second trial that Rubiales will face for kissing Hermoso in front of millions of people last August. He has already experienced the worst kind of trial to which anyone can be subjected nowadays, regardless of the seriousness of their alleged crime: trial by media.
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