Spain’s ex-soccer chief convicted of sexual assault for kissing star player

By José Bautista and Lynsey Chutel

Luis Rubiales, the former head of Spain’s soccer federation, was convicted earlier this week of sexual assault for forcibly kissing a member of the women’s national team on the lips after the team won the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

Rubiales’ kiss of the player, Jennifer Hermoso, set off a national scandal, deepened debates about long-standing sexism in Spanish soccer and became a watershed moment in Spain’s #MeToo movement.

A Spanish court on Thursday cleared Rubiales of a separate charge of coercion. For the sexual assault conviction, it fined Rubiales 10,800 euros (about $11,270).

In delivering the ruling, Judge José Gonzales said a kiss “is not the normal way of greeting people with whom one does not have an emotional relationship.”

Rubiales was also ordered not to go within 200 meters, or about 650 feet, of Hermoso for one year. The court said he cannot contact Hermoso and must pay her 3,000 euros for “moral damage caused to her.”

Gonzales said the sum was proportionate for the forcible kiss, especially given the “time and place” — in full view of thousands of spectators in the stadium and many others watching the ceremony on television.

There was no immediate response from Hermoso. She had said the kiss was not consensual, which Rubiales disputed. Speaking in a courtroom near Madrid earlier this month, he said, “You don’t win a World Cup every day,” and he added that he had kissed other players in celebratory moments.

Prosecutors said the former soccer boss had pressured Hermoso to drop her claim and play down the incident.