The former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) Luis Rubiales defended his innocence in the accusation of sexual assault against soccer player Jenni Hermoso. He also denies the crime of “coercion.”
«Whoever sees the images, I cannot understand that someone thinks that this is a sexual assault. Mrs. Hermoso said that there was a friendly relationship. An aggressor does not ask, there was nothing sexual. She tells me ‘okay’. “Let everyone have their opinion,” he said this Wednesday. in an interview with the program ‘El Objective’ on laSexta, recorded on Tuesday in Punta Cana.
Rubiales, that in another order of things He also denied the accusations of corruption in his management that leak from the investigations of the Civil Guard, He pointed to Hermoso’s change of version after the kiss on the mouth he gave her during the medal ceremony in the Sydney final last summer.
«She herself came out immediately to say that there was nothing. Mrs. Hermoso changed her version due to certain pressures. The day after landing, we spoke with FIFA again. I spoke for 10 seconds with Hermoso on the plane, if that is coercion, anything is coercion,” said Rubiales who returned to Spain this Wednesday, expected by the Civil Guard upon his arrival in Barajas.
The former president of the RFEF also pointed out that The Spanish international acted in a “manipulative” manner. «His way of qualifying my words is manipulative. I have verified that she gives an opinion, that there is nothing, and a few days later she gives another written version. Then there is a complaint from the Prosecutor’s Office, without notification,” she said.
«The one who has had no life and has been left on the street is me. My daughters are also clear about it, they heard Hermoso say ‘it’s a kiss between friends.’”, he noted, before also denying the crime of “coercion.” “That is false. No one will be able to prove that no one from the Federation coerced them. If anything, they tried to talk to help them both come out together to say the same thing,” she said.
«For me there is no crime. I asked her the question and she told me ‘okay’, it’s my version and hers as soon as the game ended. “She has learned that there is a brutal persecution against me and that there are people who, because they are close to me, are affecting them,” she stated.
On the other hand, Rubiales recognized, as in his day, that his performance was not appropriate, but defended his same effusiveness when it came to the men’s team. «I apologized because at a medal ceremony, I also tried to give Vilda a kiss. When we won the Nations League I kissed all the players, including Alba by the neck. My relationship with Hermoso goes back years, from soccer player to soccer player. “It was not appropriate and I recognized it, it should have been more cold and institutional,” he said.
«I also gave spikes to my daughters and I have not sexually assaulted them. Radical is bad. What he is doing is that when there are two opinions, some radicals agree with a woman,”
On the other hand, the former president of the RFEF spoke about the complaints of the players towards the former coach Jorge Vilda. «What they wanted was for me to kill Vilda, for no reason, because the message wasn’t getting through, because they were tired of him. The three captains, Guijarro, Paredes and Putellas, asked me for Vilda’s head,” he noted.