Former Spanish Football Federation president Luis Rubiales has insisted he “cannot understand” why his “Kissgate” scandal would be described as sexual assault.
On Wednesday morning, Rubiales, 46, was arrested amid an ongoing corruption investigation unrelated to the “unwanted” kiss he gave soccer player Jenni Hermoso after the Women’s World Cup final. Spain against England last August.
Instead, his arrest is linked to alleged financial irregularities during his time as head of the Spanish Football Federation and focuses on business deals believed to include one to host the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia.
However, despite his arrest over a separate matter, Rubiales still faces possible punishment for his actions last August: Spanish prosecutors are seeking a two-and-a-half year prison sentence for the former FA boss.
Now, in an interview with the Spanish station The sixthRubiales has spoken out and pointed out the judge who accused him of coercion and sexual assault for his ‘unwanted’ kiss with Hermoso saying: ‘I think your way of describing my words is manipulative.’
Former Spanish Football Federation president Luis Rubiales has insisted he “cannot understand” why his famous “Kissgate” scandal would be labeled as sexual assault.
Rubiales kissed Jenni Hermoso on the lips without her consent after Spain’s victory in the World Cup
A FIFA disciplinary committee later determined that Rubiales had acted with “a sense of complete impunity” at the trophy ceremony after Spain’s 1–0 victory over England.
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An early clip of the interview released overnight showed Rubiales, who traveled to the Dominican Republic earlier this year for work reasons, reacting angrily to interviewer Ana Pastor’s claims that his defense had involved attacking the soccer player.
In a later clip he insisted on their infamous kiss: “I can’t understand how anyone would think this was a sexual assault” before rejecting any coercion saying: “I only spoke for 10 or 15 seconds with Miss Hermoso.”
The full interview will air at 9:30 pm GMT, however, the outlet has already published an excerpt from the discussion, where Rubiales expressed his opinion.
Last month, prosecutors involved in the Kissgate case said they were seeking a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for Rubiales.
They said, in an indictment sent to Madrid-based Judge Francisco de Jorge, that they wanted him jailed for a year if convicted at trial of sexual assault and another 18 months for coercion related to his alleged attempts to get the man to speak. soccer player. in defending him after kissing him at the World Cup.
Around the same time, Spanish prosecutors called for Rubiales to be arrested for alleged financial irregularities while he was in charge of the Spanish Football Federation.
The full interview will be released Wednesday night, where Rubiales also addresses the ongoing corruption investigation in which he has been involved.
The Spanish prosecutor’s office is pressing for Rubiales to receive a sentence of two and a half years in prison for ‘Kissgate’
Spanish international footballer Hermoso photographed arriving at Madrid court in January
The incident completely overshadowed Spain’s World Cup victory and sparked outrage across the football world, sparking one of the worst crises in the history of sport in Spain.
The corruption investigation is linked to alleged financial irregularities during his time as director of the Spanish Football Federation and focuses on business deals believed to include one to host the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia.
Rubiales was arrested by police on Wednesday after being escorted off a flight returning to Madrid from the Caribbean.
The detectives were waiting for him when he got off an Air Europa plane from the Dominican Republic that landed at Madrid’s Barajas airport shortly before 11 a.m. local time.
Police confirmed he had been released shortly after 1.30pm, ahead of a scheduled court summons where he will be questioned by a judge behind closed doors.
His house in the southern Spanish city of Granada was one of several properties registered on March 20, but it was already in the Caribbean.
A Spanish court is also investigating Rubiales (left) for the 2019 decision to move the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia
Footage emerged on Wednesday showing the 46-year-old man entering a Civil Guard van shortly after 10.30am local time, after officers had awaited his arrival at Barajas airport in Madrid.
Police raided former FA president Rubiales’ apartment last month
Rubiales had already said that he would return to Spain and insisted that it would be on April 6, but overnight it was learned that he had changed his travel plans.
He advanced his voluntary return after an operation by the Spanish police in the Dominican Republic on Monday with the help of local agents.
Officers from the Central Operational Unit of the Civil Guard, a specialized division of the police responsible for the investigation and prosecution of the most serious forms of crime and organized crime, are said to have confiscated his phone and a laptop during a search of the property in which it was located. has been staying on the Caribbean island.
Spanish outlet El Mundo said police investigators have concluded that Rubiales diverted at least £3.24 million (€3.8 million) from the Spanish Football Federation to a construction company that paid him bribes through a company controlled by a close friend.