Luis Rubiales strikes back. In an interview granted to journalist Piers Morgan and broadcast on the British channel TalkTV on Tuesday, the now ex-president of the Spanish Football Association went back over the episode of the kiss to player Jennifer Hermoso after the women's 'Roja' were crowned world champions.
" It was a reciprocal act, she came to me, very happy" he said, referring to a gesture that has since led to his resignation and the fact that he has been summoned by an examining magistrate on Friday to appear as an accused to answer charges of sexual assault.
" She lifted me up, lifted me into the air (...) We were both moved. When we touched down, I had a brief exchange with her and we congratulated each other. I gave her a quick kiss. I asked her, "Can I give you a little kiss? Which is normal in our country (...) I remember that she gave me one or two pats on the side. She laughed and that was that." explained the former CEO during this interview on the Piers Morgan sans filtre programme.
MY INTENTIONS WERE NOBLE
" No (malicious) intent. And of course no sexual connotations or anything like that. Nothing other than a moment of happiness, a great joy at that moment." says Rubiales in this interview. " My intentions were noble, 100% not sexual, 100%, I repeat 100%," he claims.
Jenni Hermoso denied this, saying that she had " felt vulnerable and a victim (...) of an impulsive and sexist act, inappropriate and without any consent on (my) part" . Rubiales even argued before Piers Morgan that he would have acted the same way if it had been a man: " There's no doubt about it... When I was a player, there were times, when we were avoiding relegation or winning promotion in particular, when we kissed each other on the mouth..." .
Since a recent reform of the Spanish Penal Code, a non-consensual kiss can be considered a sexual assault, a criminal category that includes all types of sexual violence.
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