The prosecuting lawyer in the trial of Luis Rubiales says he enforced “a code of silence” among those in senior roles at the Spanish football federation while trying to calm the storm around his behaviour at the 2023 Women’s World Cup final.
The former president of the Spanish football federation (RFEF) kissed Jenni Hermoso as she and her Spain team-mates were receiving their winners’ medals after beating England 1-0 in the World Cup final on August 20, 2023. He maintains that kiss was consensual.
“What Mr Rubiales said was put into action and was said. He was in charge of everything. If he fell, the others fell with him,” said the prosecuting lawyer Marta Durantez while making her closing argument in Rubiales’ trial for alleged sexual assault and coercion.
Rubiales, 47, and three other RFEF employees — the former Spain women’s coach Jorge Vilda, the former Newcastle United forward and ex-RFEF sporting director Albert Luque and former marketing director Ruben Rivera — are alleged to have coerced Hermoso into publicly supporting Rubiales’ version of events, that the kiss had been consensual. Rubiales, Luque, Rivera and Vilda deny any wrongdoing.
“It happened publicly, it was seen not only by all of Spain, but by the whole world,” continued Durantez….
