Spain former football chief's kiss wrong 'in any social or work setting': Hermoso

Rubiales provoked worldwide outrage when he cupped Hermoso's head and gave her an unsolicited kiss after she helped Spain beat England in the 2023 Women's World Cup final in Australia. Prosecutors are seeking two and a half years in prison for Rubiales, one year for sexual assault for the forced kiss and 18 months for allegedly coercing Hermoso, 34, to downplay the incident.

Rubiales, 47, has called the kiss an innocuous "peck between friends celebrating" and denied any coercion. "This shouldn't happen in any social or work setting... A kiss on the lips is only given when I decide so," Hermoso said on the opening day of the trial at the National Court in San Fernando de Henares near Madrid.

"As a woman I felt disrespected. It was a moment that stained one of the happiest days of my life," added Hermoso, the all-time top scorer for the national women's team. "At no point did I seek that act, let alone expect it," she said during more than two hours of testimony.

"I don't have to be crying in a room or have thrown myself to the ground when the act happened to imply I didn't like it." Rubiales is scheduled to take the stand on February 12th in the highly anticipated trial running until February 19th.

Among the accused alongside Rubiales are ex-women's national team coach Jorge Vilda and two former federation officials, Ruben Rivera and Albert Luque. They also stand accused of trying to coerce Hermoso with prosecutors seeking 18 months' jail against them.

Life 'on stand by'

Hermoso said Luque asked her to help resolve "the biggest mess" of Rubiales' life and that federation officials wanted her to release a video or a statement hushing up the incident on "countless" occasions. Testifying after Hermoso, the federation's press chief Patricia Perez Requena told the court that the director of communications Pablo Garcia Cuervo said they had to stop the "media noise" as they left Australia.

A press statement was written to downplay the kiss in her name, Requena said, adding that a tired Hermoso read the text and said "do what you want". Hermoso later said she did not seek the kiss and asked why she had to "keep doing this sort of things" after the statement was drafted, said Requena.

Hermoso, who now plays in Mexico, said she faced death threats and insufferable media pressure after returning to Spain and left Madrid with her family due to the fear she felt. "Until today it feels like my life has been on stand by" due to the case, she added.

The scandal has rocked Spanish football and made Hermoso an icon of the fight against macho culture and sexism in sport. Rubiales, who was already under investigation for alleged corruption in his role as federation head, stepped down in September 2023, two days after the start of a probe over the kiss. He had been federation chief since 2018.

In a recent Netflix documentary titled "Se acabo" ("It's over"), which looks back at the players' anger after the scandal overshadowed their historic success, Hermoso revealed she cried following the kiss. She told the court on Monday that "no one came to ask me how I was" after the incident and felt "completely abandoned by the federation". Men's national team manager Luis de la Fuente is among the witnesses due to speak on Tuesday.