The former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) Luis Rubiales has requested the archiving and dismissal of the file opened by the Sports Administrative Court (TAD), which proposed a sanction of 3 years of disqualification for the kiss to Jenni Hermoso and her performance in the box after the 2023 Women’s World Cup final.
This is what it says in the 18-page document of allegations, to which Europa Press has had access, presented this Monday by Luis Rubiales before the TAD after the proposal of two sanctions, each one of one year and six months, for considering actions such as serious infractions by the Sports Law and sports discipline legislation.
These sanctions “do not correspond”, according to Rubiales’ defense, with the reasoning in the rest of the text of the proposed resolution but rather appear “disconnected” and project an “arbitrary” and “unjustified” request“. In this sense, it considers that the sanction should be a warning, fine or disqualification of three or six months.
In the letter, the former president of the RFEF regretted that the TAD requested, despite considering that the facts were “notorious” and “public”, a report to the CSD, which includes a “mere compilation of press articles”, but not the impact on social networks, which confesses its “permeability” and “influence” by media pressure and political powers.
In this sense, he announced that, in the event that the sanction is based on “arbitrariness”, “permeability” and “absence of legal objectivity and classification”, he is being “served on a platter” go to criminal jurisdiction. “Which is what I already announce to you that I will do in case a sanction is consumed for these events,” he said.
Rubiales stressed that both the initiating agreement and the proposed resolution highlight that the consensual or non-consensual nature of the kiss remains “outside the walls of the sports disciplinary field,” which is why the news that appeared in the report that refer to ‘forced kiss’, ‘imposed’, ‘unsolicited’, ‘unwanted’ or ‘stolen’ could not, in his opinion, be taken into consideration.
“The fleeting kiss (not on the mouth but) on the lips was consensual, and anyone who says otherwise is being untruthful. Everything I have stated to date has been my only version and that is how it will be. The visual evidence , behavioral, even the spontaneous statements of both parties after what happened indicate this,” he reiterated against the version offered by Jenni Hermoso in her statement before the prosecution.
For Rubiales there has been a “bestial theatricalization”, a “brutal demagoguery” and a “lynching” for various factors. “One, that I made a mistake. Two, that they had been after me for a long time. Three, that it was very good for some radicalized sector of Spanish politics. Four, that this matter constituted, without a doubt, a media bonanza,” summarized.
The “whimsical coincidence” of 155
Likewise, he sees a “capricious coincidence” in the number of his file, 155, with the article of the Constitution that the Government applied in 2017 in Catalonia, after the declaration of independence by the Parliament.
“It is evident that parallels cannot be made between my case and the significance and political relevance that that number, 155, had a few years ago. But it does come to (…) that we live in a State of Law, and “It is not reasonable to twist legal interpretation to try to protect an extremely unfair and disproportionate sanction.”he stressed.
He elaborates on his allegations that he had Hermoso’s consent and regretted the changes in versions when there are crimes involved that they want to exonerate or “when there are none, but the intention is to dramatize and take the pressure to the maximum extreme to point out and criminalize.”
“In my case, many have changed from private to public opinion (others remain silent, which is safer). There are also those who have modified their version, they will know why. Some They have spuriously wanted to use me to criminalize an act of joy and celebration, mutual and consensual. Plain and simple, I asked and she said ‘Okay’. Full stop. You cannot prove otherwise. Neither you nor anyone else because what I say is the truth,” she said.
The gesture, directed at Vilda
On the other hand, he censored and described as “very serious” the “malicious” leak of the proposed 3-year sanction by some member of the TAD to the press, generating “a parallel public trial” and “total helplessness”, and recalled that the sanctions of athletes or coaches “for grabbing the crotch” have never gone beyond a “slap on the wrist” as a match sanction or a financial fine.
He admitted that the gesture of touching his genitals in the box was a “crude”, “inappropriate” and “ordinary” act, but he reiterated that it was directed at the national coach, Jorge Vildawho “had suffered a lot from blackmail by those who are now taking advantage of it to extract profits and execute a sweet revenge with the false excuse of ‘Winning in rights,'” he points out in the allegations to which Europa Press has had access.
In said writing, he argues that neither this gesture nor the kiss to Jenni Hermoso “are contrary to sporting dignity and decorum”, and that in the case of the former “it is not sexist” and that a warning could be a sanction “even harsh.” “, but that “may be admissible and fair.”
Likewise, he confessed that he should have omitted the kiss to Hermoso, although he again insisted that It was a “mutual” and “spontaneous” gesture for the immense joy of having just won the first women’s soccer World Cup in history, as well as that it had no impact on the sporting competition and cannot be sanctioned “with the law in hand.”
Finally, Rubiales defended that he has been the main promoter of equality between men and women in the practice of football by professionalizing the technical bodies of the women’s team, the “historic agreement” on bonuses for internationals and, among other milestones, the increase from 2.7 to 27 million in the budget and the professionalization of the women’s First Division.