The resigned president of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) Luis Rubiales reiterated this Tuesday that the kiss of player Jenni Hermoso was “consensual”, “mutual” and did not have any sexual connotation.
“It was a mutual act, she came to me very happy. She lifted me up, she lifted me in the air… We were both excited,” Rubiales said this Tuesday in an interview with the British television program Piers Morgan Uncensored.
“I was able to chat with him immediately. We congratulated him. I gave him a kiss. I asked him ‘can I give you a quick peck?’, normal in our country,” added Rubiales in this interview.
“I think he patted me on the side one or two, he laughed and that was it. It was not intentional. There was no kind of sexual meaning, it was just a moment of joy, the great joy of the moment,” explained Rubiales. .
The former RFEF president caused surprise and general outrage when on August 20 he kissed player Jenni Hermoso on the mouth at the World Cup medal ceremony in Australia, after Spain’s victory.
His action, along with his actions in the box putting his hand on his penis, and his subsequent refusal to resign five days later at an RFEF assembly, led to his suspension by FIFA for 90 days.
At the same time, the Spanish sports justice system opened a file against him and a judge from the National Court, Spain’s top criminal court, summoned him to testify on Friday in an investigation for a alleged crime of sexual assault.
“It has become a snowball created with false arguments. My intentions are noble, 100% non-sexual, 100%, I repeat 100%,” insisted Rubiales, in which he also spoke of his resignation, which he announced on Sunday.
The former president of the RFEF justified his hugs and his enthusiasm by saying that “I think that Latinos, for a cultural reason, are more inclined to touch each other, it’s normal in a Latin world between men and women.”
Rubiales admitted he felt “embarrassed” by his behavior in the Sydney stadium box, next to Queen Letizia, and about the kiss he insisted “I was wrong and I sincerely apologize.”
“A president can hug, but he should act more diplomatically and coolly,” he added.
Rubiales, who denied that he pressured Hermoso, insisted that “I have full confidence that the truth will come to light and everything will be fine.”
