Three days after the world title in the women’s category, on August 23, 2023, there was a frantic day in the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF). It had nothing to do with the world championship, the greatest deed in the history of women’s sports in Spain. Luis Rubiales, cornered by the growing controversy generated by the kiss he had imposed on the celebration of the Title to the player Jenni Hermoso, set up a crisis cabinet in her office from the third floor. There were his father, a childhood friend and some of his most loyal men in the Federation and who paraded in front of the judge of the National Court that judges him not only by the kiss broadcast live to everyone, also by The supposed maneuvers that warned later to minimize its impact.
His testimonies – and those of other witnesses who passed through the view room – showed the ‘gentlemen’s pact’ that was forged between Rubiales and his closest circle to try to save the enormous power of the man who directed the main Spanish soccer body and that had just celebrated a heroic deed for Spanish sport. And, incidentally, to save themselves. They were days of “reprimands”, “enclosures”, exculpatory reports with prefabricated testimonies and manipulated communications. This was evidenced by several of the witnesses to the judge who will have to decide to what extent those movements could derive in the crime of coercion that the accusations attributed to Rubiales, to the former selector Jorge Vilda, to the former sports director of the male and exfutbolist team, Albert Luque, and the former Marketing of the Federation, Rubén Rivera.
Jenni Hermoso stood out in the court during his statement the “unprotected” that he felt by the Federation – “No one came to ask how it was” – and said he needed psychological help to face what happened. In addition, he made it clear that the kiss had not been spoiled and, without citing it expressly, pointed to the abuse of power. “I knew that my boss was kissing and that should not happen in a work environment (…). I felt little respected. They stained one of the happiest days of my life, ”he said.
The player did not harass when Rubiales’ defense asked him about the videos in which, after the delivery of the trophy, she appeared celebrating the victory and joking, also with the kiss. “I don’t have to be crying in a room to understand that I did not like,” she replied, showing that her reaction does not invalidate her feelings at that time and challenging the stereotypes that build an “ideal type of victim.”
Prefabricated testimonies
The four days of view have served to make the portrait of a man, Rubiales, obey in minimizing the consequences of a behavior that a good part of society considered unacceptable; and of an institution absolutely folded to its president and turned to free it from an international dimension scandal. It is something that evidenced facts such as the dome concealed Jenni Hermoso the existence of an internal protocol against sexual violence, as she recognized herself; or that the internal report that described the kiss as something “anecdotal” and “unimportant” was prepared in just a day and a half and with prefabricated testimonies to support Rubiales’ performance.
Patricia Pérez, press chief of the women’s team, said the “enclosure” that he lived when he received in writing the answers he had in that report and that he collected statements that “were not reality.” His testimony was endorsed by another witnesses, the former communication director, Enrique Yunta, who said that it was Rubiales himself who issued those answers. Javier López Vallejo, a psychologist of the Women’s National Team during the World Cup, also acknowledged that they had given him a draft with the answers he had to give. The latter also admitted that neither in the celebration nor on the flight back to Spain spoke with beautiful to know how it was.
But the maneuvers carried out by the federative dome to protect the president would have started shortly after the kiss, according to the witnesses who spent this week in front of the judge. Ana Álvarez, then director of Women’s Soccer, said she received a “strong reprimand” from Rubiales for not having mediated with beautiful Jenni when the entourage was transferred to the Sydney airport to take the flight back to Spain.
It was on that journey when the ex -statement for Rubiales was forged that included alleged phrases of the player. The former director of Communication, Pablo García Cuervo, acknowledged that he did not speak with Hermoso to write that text released in his name. Said it was based on statements that she had made in the COPE Because he considers her a person “quite influential and quite manipulable” and feared that, if he asked him, he could change his mind. And, consequently, give a version that would break with that exchanging statement. However, he insisted that he only spread because she gave her approval.
García Cuervo’s was one of the most tense interrogations of the week. Judge José Manuel Fernández-Prieto caught his attention several times for his challenging and chulesco tone. “Enough now! My patience is reaching a limit. He comes here to declare, not to give those answers. I want to know things clearly, not with chulería, ”he demanded after he questioned the way in which María José López, the co -director of the Legal Advice of the Association of Spanish Footballers (AFE) had prepared the trial. Previously, he had told him to save the qualifiers with which he had referred to the player.
“Professional and personal consequences”
The alleged pressures to the player and her surroundings would have followed in the more than twenty hours of flight back to Spain, in which Rubiales chained meetings with her nearest team. He tried to speak with Hermoso to appear in a video by giving importance to the kiss. The accusation maintains that, as he did not succeed, he asked former selector Jorge Vilda to mediate through his brother, as Rafael del Amo, former responsibility of women’s football in the Federation, also confirmed. Finally, he ended up recording only a video in which he tried in a veiled way to correspond to the kiss player by saying that there had been “bad faith for either part.”
Both Rafael Hermoso, the player’s brother, and a family friend pointed to Vilda as the author of some pressures that attributed to Rubiales’ mandate. The relative assured that the coach told him that if the player collaborated with the then president, he would have open the doors of the RFEF, but that if he did not take into account “the professional and personal consequences”. The soccer players Misa Rodríguez and Laia Codina confirmed to have seen Vilda talk to their partner’s brother, although they did not hear a conversation that has the only witnesses to the three intervenings, which can help the defense theses of the former selector.
The last scenario of the alleged coercion is Ibiza, where a dozen players – brother among them – enjoyed a few days of vacations paid by the Federation after the title. The other two defendants moved there: Rubén Rivera, who was the representative of the Federation on that trip and who attended the needs of the players; and Albert Luque. The latter was the one who left the worse stop of this week’s interrogations. Mainly, due to the messages he sent to Ana Ecube, friend of Jenni Hermoso who accompanied the player to the island.
Luque left in writing that Jenni Hermoso was a “bad person” for not help It would be glad. During her statement, Ecube also said that Luque tried to bribe her already beautiful to justify the kiss. “He told me: If you help us, you will not miss work or you or Jenni,” Ecube maintained. According to her testimony she replied that she was not mistaken because she had a job. “I seemed to sell my soul to the devil,” he said. In any case, the witness assured that she did not perceive “violence or threats” in these facts, which will undoubtedly be used by the defense to question the accusation for the crime of coercion.
The accused fourth, Rubén Rivera, is indicated by the accusations for his insistence to Jenni Hermoso to speak by telephone with the head of integrity of the Federation and with Luque himself. Both Ecube and the players who were in Ibiza with Bermm resorting to him for different trips of the trip.
This week the statement of the current coach is scheduled, Montse Tomé, who decided not to summon Jenni Hermoso in the first event after the World Cup in which she had been one of the best players. Tomé explained during the investigation that he did not include it in these calls for sports reasons and to “protect it” from the media pressure, but the player dropped into her statement that it was a retaliation for having refused to do what he had asked who had been who had been His “boss.”
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