Jenni Hermoso told the Spanish prosecutor’s office that the country’s football federation and its president, Luis Rubiales, “tarnished my reputation” when he kissed her after the 2023 Women’s World Cup final, adding: “why do I have to be crying in a room when I haven’t done anything?”
Hermoso added that the incident “made it difficult for me to leave the house”.
Rubiales kissed Hermoso on the lips after Spain’s World Cup final win over England, which she says was not consensual.
Rubiales claims the kiss was “mutual” and “consensual” and has denied two criminal offences. He resigned his position as head of the football federation (RFEF) in the wake of the incident and has been banned from going within 200m of the footballer.
On Monday evening, the Spanish television programme ‘Codigo 10’ broadcast Hermoso’s testimony before the Prosecutor’s Office.
“At that moment I did not have time to react,” she says in relation to the kiss. “I do not deserve to have lived through all this. It has been very difficult to be able to leave home. I had to leave Madrid to not have that pressure. Why do I have to be crying in a room when I haven’t done anything?”
Hermoso also accuses the RFEF of leaving her “unprotected”. “They tarnished my image, I…
