The puzzle of Rubiales case continues to be completed, far from the intense media attention that surrounded the judicial investigation after the scandal broke out. Two new witnesses testified this Thursday at the National Court about the alleged coercion deployed within the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) to try to get Jenni Hermoso to go out in public to justify the kiss that Luis Rubiales gave her after the team’s victory. World. And both have put on the table a version that contradicts the exculpatory theses that the former president of the federation and the former coach of the women’s team, Jorge Vilda, presented to Judge Francisco de Jorge.
According to legal sources, Rafael del Amo, president of the National Women’s Football Committee, assured this Thursday that he did not witness any type of coercion firsthand, but that he did see how Rubiales told Vilda to go talk to her brother. Beautiful during the flight back to Spain from Sydney (Australia). For his part, Vitoriano Martín, a friend of the player who was sitting on the plane with her brother, has corroborated the testimony of the soccer player’s relative, who stated that the coach pressured him in that conversation and told him to think about the ” personal and professional consequences” that the athlete could suffer.
These words contradict the statements of Rubiales and Vilda. Both denied any type of pressure. Furthermore, the two assured that the coach addressed his brother on his own initiative, and added that he did not follow the instructions of the president of the RFEF. “I didn’t even know that the brother was coming on the plane. I found out later because Jorge Vilda, who was sitting behind me, told me: ‘I came from talking to Jenni’s brother, who is a reasonable guy and such, and he is going to talk to her,’ Rubiales told Magistrate Francisco de Jorge. Vilda added that he simply went to talk to this relative to help Hermoso – whom he saw badly, according to him – to take away the “media pressure.”
This story opposes the version of the other protagonists. The soccer player told the Prosecutor’s Office about that conversation under suspicion: “They let my brother know that, if I helped him, I would do well.” […] They told my family that I had been very important, that I deserved it, and that they would try to convince me to help make the event downplayed. Was my family used to convince me? Clear. There were 100 or 200 relatives there, I don’t know why he just stopped with mine.”
The soccer player’s brother pointed out along the same lines: “We got on the plane, we took off and I fell asleep for a long time. When I woke up, Vitoriano told me that Jorge Vilda had come to look for me twice. He was already awake and came [una tercera vez]. And he told me: ‘Have you seen what’s going on in Spain about the kiss?’ And I said: ‘Well yes. We are aware of what has happened.’ We formed a huddle in the middle of the plane and Jorge told me, verbatim: ‘The pressure to talk to you so that you can convince your sister to go out with him to make a statement before arriving in Doha.’ At first, her tone was to make light of the matter: ‘This was a kiss that has no importance, that nothing happens…’. And the first thing he told me was that the daughters [de Rubiales] They were crying and [el presidente] He was worried because they were putting a lot of pressure on him from Spain, they were putting a lot of pressure on him and he was afraid of losing his job. […] Before ending the conversation with Vilda, he told me these exact words: ‘If this can be easily clarified by saying that nothing has happened and it has been consensual… Think about the consequences this could have, both personally and professionally for your sister.’ . Already at that moment the tone was different. I felt—I don’t know what the appropriate term is—a threat, coercion or pressure.”
The statement of Laia Codina, Arsenal player and Jenni Hermoso’s teammate, was also due to be held this Thursday, but the event has been suspended due to technical problems, as confirmed by legal sources. Codina, who will be called to testify another day, was one of the soccer players who explained in public how the scandal occurred among the internationals. In an interview in Catalunya Ràdio, asked about Rubiales’ kiss, said: “In the locker room we started to see the news, but when we really began to be aware of the facts, also of Rubiales’s gesture with the Queen, it was on the bus. It is when we are really aware of it, when one of the veterans tells us: ‘Be careful, girls, what happened is very serious, it is unacceptable and we must condemn it because, in the end, it is still an abuse of power from the boss towards a player, who could have been any of us.”
Cited by judge Francisco De Jorge, three other teammates from the women’s team (Alexia Putellas, Irene Paredes and Misa Rodríguez) already supported Hermoso’s version in October about the “non-consensual” kiss of the former president of the RFEF and the alleged pressures deployed in the following days.
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