Spain's former football boss on trial over World Cup kiss

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - MADRID — The former president of Spain's football federation, Luis Rubiales, goes on trial on Monday, accused of sexual assault for kissing the player Jenni Hermoso, in a case that has fed into wider discussions about sexism and consent.

Hermoso is scheduled to appear as a witness on the opening day having traveled from Mexico, where she plays club football. The trial runs until 19 February.

As Spain's players received their medals after defeating England in Sydney to win the 2023 World Cup, Rubiales grabbed Hermoso by the head and kissed her on the lips. Afterward, Hermoso said the kiss had not been consensual, while Rubiales insisted it had been.

The incident triggered protests and calls for Rubiales's resignation, and it also entered the political arena. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, whose left-wing government has approved reforms seeking to boost gender equality and ensure consent in sexual relations, said that Rubiales's kiss had shown that "there is still a long way to go when it comes to equality and respect between women and men".

After initially remaining defiant and denouncing a witch-hunt driven by "fake feminism", the federation president eventually resigned, before legal charges were brought against him.

Prosecutors are calling for Rubiales to receive a one-year prison sentence for sexual assault for the kiss. They are also calling for him to be given a sentence of a year-and-a-half for coercion, for allegedly trying to pressure Hermoso into saying publicly that the kiss was consensual. Rubiales denies the charges.

Three colleagues of Rubiales are also on trial, accused of colluding in the alleged coercion: Jorge Vilda, coach of the World Cup-winning side, Rubén Rivera, the federation's former head of marketing, and former sporting director, Albert Luque. They all deny the charges.

Isabel Fuentes has watched the female national team closely ever since she was among the first women to represent Spain in football, from 1971 onwards. She describes the furore caused by the Rubiales kiss as "very sad", because of how it overshadowed the World Cup victory, which, when mentioned, brings her to the verge of tears.

"It was something we would have liked to experience, but we weren't allowed to," she says. "These players won it for us. They have lived out our dreams."

Fuentes played when the dictatorship of Francisco Franco was still in place and the women's team were not even allowed to wear the Spanish flag on their shirts.

"The regime said: 'We don't want you to play football, but we'll just ignore you,'" she says. "And the federation put all manner of obstacles in our way."

Like many fans, she was concerned by how the Rubiales controversy affected the international image of Spanish football and she was also shocked by footage showing the former federation president celebrating the World Cup win by grabbing his crotch as he stood just a few feet away from Spain's Queen Letizia.

But younger players, like Belén Peralta, prefer to emphasize how far women's football has come, rather than dwell on the Rubiales case. Playing for third-division side Olimpia Las Rozas, Peralta says that even in the last few years she has noticed a shift in terms of the attention and support that women's football receives.

"When I was younger, girls playing football was kind of strange, you were told, 'Oh, that's for boys,' or 'That's not a girl's thing,'" she says. "And nowadays, you go to some places and you say, 'I'm a footballer,' and that's so cool and attractive."

Her teammate, Andrea Rodríguez, agrees. Although she says that occasionally she might hear sexist comments about women's football, social attitudes are overwhelmingly positive.

"People are more open-minded now," she says. — BBC