I Won’t Apologize To Hermoso For Our Controversial Kiss – Luis Rubiales

Former Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) president Luis Rubiales has said that his sexual assault conviction for kissing Jenni Hermoso was the result of a political witch hunt. He recently insisted that the incident was blown out of proportion, and fans have been reacting.

According to him, the scandal was distorted and politically driven, and he won’t apologize to Hermoso because she consented to the kiss.

He added that while he admits that the kiss was inappropriate, the backlash and conviction are the result of exaggeration and interests beyond football.

His words, “Yes, I have appealed the sentence. When there is a sentence, we all have an obligation to abide by it. We believe this is not sexual assault, and we have the right to appeal. There was a tremendous, disproportionate modification. It was dubbed ‘non-consensual kissing.’ It has to reach the Supreme Court. There has to be sexual intent in the kiss. We have our arguments to say that there was a wrongful act, but not a crime.

It was a mistake, I wasn’t right. From there to everything that’s been blown out of proportion, distorted, taken to the extreme… with certain interests. It’s more than I deserved. I stand by it. I apologise, I apologise again. As president, I should have been more composed, more professional.

I’m not apologising to Jenni Hermoso because I asked her and she said: ‘Okay’. Jenni and I know that what the ruling says isn’t true. It was a kiss of emotion, with no sexual connotation whatsoever. Jenni was a good friend, she missed a penalty… she helped us a lot in rebuilding the team. Jenni was my friend.

I spoke to her on the plane. I told her that we should both come forward and say what we’ve said. She refused. It was said that there was pressure, and we requested the video to show that there was no such pressure, but the judge did not deem it appropriate to show the video.

I saw an immediate move by the far left in this country, with an immediate change of script. Pedro Sanchez needed the support of the separatists to be sworn in [as prime minister], and he had to grant them amnesty. It suited him well to talk about something else. It was a smokescreen.

Media outlets that receive significant funding from the league attacked me. I saw that the far left, with their hypocrisy of blowing a minor issue out of proportion… they were clearly after me.”

WOW.