Sexual harassment

Prosecutor Requests New Trial for Convicted Former Spanish Soccer Boss

MAR 8 2025·Updated MAR 10 2025

Story

Above: Former head of the Spanish football federation Luis Rubiales and his lawyer Olga Tubau leave the court of San Fernando de Henares, east of Madrid, on Feb. 14, 2025, on the last day of his trial for sexual assault. Image credit: Javier Soriano/Contributor/AFP via Getty Images

The Facts

A Spanish prosecutor on Thursday requested a retrial of the former chief of the country's soccer federation, Luis Rubiales, after the top criminal court found him guilty of sexual assault for kissing Jenni Hermoso without her consent at the 2023 Women's World Cup awards ceremony.
Reuters
Al Jazeera
Marta Durántez claimed the sentence should be declared null and void on grounds that Judge José Manuel Fernández-Prieto compromised the "appearance of impartiality" of the trial, over evidence and questions that were not admitted.
Daily Mail
France 24
Rubiales was fined more than €10K and banned from getting within a 200 meters radius of Hermoso or communicating with her for one year. He avoided a custodial sentence and the one-year jail sentence sought by prosecutors.
BBC News
New York Post
Rubiales was acquitted of coercion — along with former women's coach Jorge Vilda, former sporing director Albert Luque and former marketing director Rubén Rivera — for allegedly pressuring Hermoso to downplay the incident, for which prosecutors requested 18-month prison sentences.
The New York Times
The Associated Press
Washingtontimes
Durántez further said that the fine imposed on Rubiales, and an additional €3K in compensation awarded to Jenni Hermoso, was "offensive to [her] and to the victims of sexual assault." Lawyers representing both Rubiales and Hermoso indicated their intent to appeal the ruling.
Reuters
EL PAÍS English
Rubiales resigned as soccer boss amid outrage over the incident and after weeks of pressure for him to stand down, including a suspension by FIFA. Meanwhile, Spain women's all-time top-scorer Hermoso has been left out of the national squad recently.
BBC News
ESPN.com

Sources Split

LEFT

CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

CENTER

PRO
ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

Rubiales could never escape accountability for forcibly kissing Jenni Hermoso in front of the entire world. However, those fighting against gender and sexual violence actually had a bittersweet victory, as his punishment was too light for the damage he caused. It's only natural that the prosecution are seeking a retrial.

guardian

Bootsktk

Narrative B

The witch hunt against Luis Rubiales continues even after Spain's justice system sentenced him. It's unacceptable that prosecutors are wasting public resources to try to put him behind bars for an incident that Hermoso and her teammates laughed and joked about just minutes after it took place.

Unherd

World Socialist Web Site