Former Spain football chief Rubiales on trial over forced kiss

Spain's disgraced former football chief Luis Rubiales goes on trial on Monday over his forced kiss of star striker Jenni Hermoso that triggered global outrage.

The affair has made Hermoso, 34, an icon of the fight against sexism in sport and generated soul-searching in Spain and beyond since erupting in 2023.

Prosecutors have demanded two and a half years in prison for Rubiales, one year for sexual assault for the forced kiss and 18 months for coercing Hermoso to cover up the scandal.

Alongside Rubiales among the accused 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 in the highly anticipated trial which is expected to last until February 19 in a court outside Madrid.

The scandal that rocked Spanish football and wrecked Rubiales's career broke on August 20, 2023, moments after the women's national team had clinched World Cup glory by beating England in the final in Sydney.

As Hermoso joined her teammates in collecting their winner's medals, Rubiales clasped her head and kissed her on the lips before letting her go with two slaps on the back.

The act unleashed a public outcry at what critics deemed an abuse of power. A recent reform of the Spanish criminal code classifies a non-consensual kiss as sexual assault.

Rubiales said the kiss was an innocuous "peck between friends celebrating".

A few days later and with pressure continuing to mount, he rebuffed calls for his resignation and slammed "fake feminism" during an emergency federation general assembly.

Outraged by the remarks, Hermoso broke her silence and said she felt "vulnerable and a victim... of an impulsive, macho act, out of place and with no type of consent on my part".

Rubiales eventually gave in and resigned in September 2023, two days after the start of the investigation into him.

'PROTECT THE PRESIDENT'

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.

Hermoso, who now plays for a club in Mexico, said in the documentary that the federation demanded she appear in a video where she would claim Rubiales's kiss "was nothing, it was... joy, euphoria".

Barcelona star Alexia Putellas, the most-capped player in the national women's team with two Ballon d'Or trophies to her name, told the documentary the aim was to "protect the president (Rubiales)", even if it meant "sacrificing" Hermoso.

The hashtag #SeAcabo flooded social media in the wake of the scandal to denounce sexism in sport.

The affair has shown that "the inability of some men to realise they are exerting violence" allowed the incident to happen, said Isabel Valdes, a journalist specialising in gender issues at El Pais daily.

The kiss took place in a public space when "the eyes of the whole world were riveted" on their televisions and Spanish society was "no longer ready to put up with it", she told AFP.

The resignation of Rubiales, whose tumultuous tenure saw him embroiled in separate claims about irregular financial dealings, triggered a period of turmoil for the Spanish football federation.

His replacement Pedro Rocha lasted less than a year in the job and current president Rafael Louzan was elected in December 2024 with the federation still trying to move on.