A Spanish court has found former football chief Luis Rubiales guilty of sexual assault for kissing football player Jenni Hermoso without her consent after the 2023 Women’s World Cup Final.
Rubiales, who was acquitted of coercion, was given a fine of 10,000 euros ($10,455) on Thursday, by the Audiencia Nacional Court.
He was ordered not to go within a 200-metre (660-foot) radius of Hermoso, and banned from communicating with her for one year.
The incident had cast a pall over Spain’s victory in the 2023 Women’s World Cup and set off a debate about sexism faced by female athletes.
The 47-year-old Rubiales resigned in September 2023 amid widespread outrage.
While Hermoso has stated that the kiss was not consensual and told the court that she felt “disrespected” by the act, Rubiales has maintained that it was. He told the court on Tuesday that he remained “absolutely sure” that the kiss was consensual.
Prosecutors had sought jail time for Rubiales, composed of one year for assault and 18 months for coercion, alleging that Rubiales and several prominent Spanish football officials had attempted to coerce Hermoso into saying that the kiss was consensual and downplay the incident.
The court declined to sentence Rubiales to prison time and acquitted him and the three co-defendants of coercion.
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Judge Jose Manuel Fernandez-Prieto said that he believed Hermono’s testimony that she had not consented to the kiss. He ruled that the sexual assault, “while always reproachable” was of minor intensity as there was no violence or intimidation.
“The Judge understands that, in view of the magnitude of the assault, a kiss, that it is a sporadic act of the accused, and that he does not require special rehabilitation for the crime, the pecuniary penalty must be chosen, which is less serious than the custodial sentence,” the verdict said.
The 34-year-old Hermoso, the all-time top scorer for the Spanish women’s team, told the court earlier this month that the unsolicited kiss and the commotion that followed had “stained one of the happiest days of my life”, while her teammates testified that the incident left her exhausted, crying and overwhelmed.
“As a woman, I felt disrespected,” Hermoso said at the trial.
