“When there are two opinions, some radicals agree with a woman”
MADRID, 4 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
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, after winning the last World Cup, with a kiss that he insisted was consensual and also denying 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 each one give your opinion,” he said this Wednesday in an interview with the program ‘El Objective’ on laSexta, recorded on Tuesday in Punta Cana, collected by Europa Press.
Rubiales, who in another order of things also denied the accusations of corruption in his management that are leaked from the Civil Guard investigations, pointed to Hermoso’s change of version after the kiss on the mouth that he gave him during the medal ceremony in the final in Sydney 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, awaited 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. “Her 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,” he said.
“The one who has had no life and has been left on the street is me. My daughters are also clear about it, that 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. If anything they tried to talk to help the two of them come out together to say the same thing,” he stated.
“For me there is no crime. I asked her the question and she told me ‘okay’, it is my version and hers as soon as the game ended. It has become clear that there is a brutal persecution against me and that there are people who, because they are close, mine is affecting him,” he said.
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 League of Nations I kissed all the players, including Alba around the neck. My relationship with Hermoso goes back years, from soccer player to footballer. It was not appropriate and I recognized it, it should have been colder and more institutional,” he said.
“I also gave spikes to my daughters and I have not sexually assaulted them. Radicalism is bad. What it is doing is that when there are two opinions, some radicals agree with a woman,”
On the other hand, Rubiales spoke about the players’ complaints towards former coach Jorge Vilda. “What they wanted was for me to kill Vilda, for no reason, because the message did not arrive, because they were tired of him. The three captains, Guijarro, Paredes and Putellas, asked me for Vilda’s head,” he said.