The Spanish player Jennifer Hermoso, kissed on the mouth by surprise by the suspended Spanish football boss Luis Rubiales after the coronation of La Roja at the World Cup, has filed a complaint for these facts, Agence France-Presse learned on Wednesday from the Spanish prosecutor’s office . The filing of this complaint was an essential condition for the prosecution, which had opened a preliminary investigation against Luis Rubiales at the end of August for “sexual assault”, to be able to launch proceedings against the suspended president of the Spanish federation.
These will now be able to become effective “as quickly as possible”, said the prosecution in a message. Since a recent reform of the Spanish Penal Code, a non-consensual kiss can be considered as sexual assault, a criminal category grouping together any type of sexual violence.
Luis Rubiales’ forced kiss threw Spanish football into chaos and eclipsed La Roja’s Women’s World title on August 20 against England in Sydney. A few days later, despite the rain of condemnations and calls to leave, the head of the federation had refused to resign for “a little kiss”, denouncing “a false feminism” and arguing that he had obtained authorization to the player before kissing her. A version denied by Jennifer Hermoso who said she felt “victim of aggression”.
On Tuesday, the Spanish federation decided to sack the coach of the women’s team Jorge Vilda, a close friend of Luis Rubiales whose methods were criticized by his players, and to replace him with his former assistant, Montse Tomé, the first woman to occupy this post.
