As Spain’s star striker and all-time top scorer Jenni Hermoso reached the podium, she was greeted by a celebratory Rubiales, who proceeded to hold both sides of her face and kiss her on the lips in front of the world’s TV cameras.
Whilst Rubiales maintains his claim that the kiss was consensual, claiming that he asked Hermoso whether he could kiss her and she had replied ‘ok’, the incident went on to make global news headlines, with Hermoso herself claiming that she hadn’t given him her consent. The world’s media questioned the appropriateness of the behaviour for somebody in Rubiales’s position of power feverishly.
In ‘Rubiales vs Hermoso: The World Cup Kiss’ (2 x 60”), ID gains exclusive access to Rubiales in the aftermath of the kiss and throughout his trial earlier this year, for alleged sexual assault. This is the inside story of one of Spain’s biggest trials, with footage of Rubiales and his legal team as they prepare for a court case that could result in a jail sentence of up to two and a half years.
Available on TLC, DStv channel 135, on Sunday, 26 July and Sunday, 2 August, this brand-new two-part documentary explores the case from both sides of the story. With exclusive testimony from Rubiales himself, as well as Hermoso’s Spanish national team teammates Laia Codina and Verónica Boquete, viewers will hear about the night in question, how the players were feeling at the time, Rubiales’s rebuttal of sexual assault claims and the follow-on suggestion of coercion, with allegations that there was pressure placed on Hermoso in the immediate aftermath to change her story to fit Rubiales’s narrative.
“I want to be very clear with this, very very clear. It was a mistake, but one mistake is one thing, there’s not any sexual intention here, and it’s not a sexual assault in this case. I’m strongly convinced that finally we will win,” says Rubiales, when asked if he regrets the kiss.
“The facts are the facts, and the facts are that he kissed her without permission. That’s all,” Laia Codina says. “I don’t think that he would have done the same to the men’s team. Because he didn’t do the same when they won the Nations League trophy. I think the kiss showed his character,” Codina continues.
“The kiss polarised Spain. One side argued that this was just a moment of celebration, that there was nothing else than that, and on social media there were people saying that feminism had gone too far or that Rubiales was being criticised too much,” BBC Journalist Sergi Forcada Freixas reflects in the documentary. “It was quite unfortunate for Luis Rubiales because he became the centre of a conversation far bigger than just that kiss,” writer and broadcaster Esther Krakue theorised.
At the centre of the debate around the allegations of sexual assault were Rubiales’s assertions that Jenni Hermoso replied ‘ok’ when he asked her if he could give her a little kiss, and Hermoso’s rejection of that recount of events. Having held his hands over her ears, was Hermoso able to hear the question and respond? “I’ve taken part in countless ceremonies on the pitch, and during the ceremony, there’s no music playing. It’s completely possible for two people to have a conversation. She did answer ‘ok’; she understood me clearly,” Rubiales explains in a conversation with his lawyer, Olga Tubau Martínez, prior to the trial.
In 2022, the ‘Ley del solo sí es sí’ law passed in Spain, translating as ‘Only yes is yes’. “The principle of this law is that if there is no clear consent, any sexual act can be considered sexual assault, even if there is no violence, and this is why a simple kiss could be considered sexual assault… but one of the important things about this law is whether there was sexual intent or not,” Forcada Freixas adds in the documentary, explaining how Rubiales’s legal team were tasked with demonstrating that there had been no sexual intent behind the kiss. “We are Mediterranean, we are Latin… and in our culture this is not invasive or aggressive, or has any sexual content,” Rubiales explains in the documentary. "For Luis Rubiales, what’s at stake is something as serious as being labelled a sexual offender. And they won’t specify if it’s for a kiss, or whether there was violent vaginal penetration. Honestly, I don’t think that’s fair,” Rubiales’s lawyer, Olga Tubau Martínez, says.
Explored elsewhere in the documentary is Rubiales’s feelings that Hermoso had initially had no issue with the kiss, but later changed her mind. “She downplayed the incident. She called it an anecdote, and she said that it was just done in a moment of euphoria, as part of the celebrations,” Forcada Freixas explains, referencing an interview Hermoso had given immediately after the incident. “After the kiss, Jenni didn’t have any problem with me. Why she changed the narrative, I can’t explain. I lost a friend with this,” Rubiales reflects.
Hermoso’s alleged change in approach led to allegations that Rubiales and senior Spanish officials were attempting to coerce her into giving a joint statement with Rubiales shortly after the match, downplaying the incident as a friendly celebration. “They were pressing Jenni a lot. That’s what made her upset, that’s what made her cry and cry and cry,” teammate Codina recalls about the flight home from Australia. “During the flight I would get up to see how Jenni was doing. Every time I went to talk to her, people from the Federation would immediately surround us. They were trying to hide it… of course we both knew that they didn’t want me to approach her, to even check up on her,” Amanda Gutierrez, President of the Futpro Players’ Union, reveals.
In February 2025, Rubiales’s trial began at the National Courts of Spain, with both Rubiales and Hermoso taking the stand to give evidence. Later that month, Rubiales was found guilty of sexual assault, but not of the allegations of coercion. He was ordered to pay Hermoso a fine of 10,800 euros. The documentary outlines how all parties were left unsatisfied by the verdict and accompanying punishment, with Rubiales subsequently announcing his appeal against his sexual assault conviction, and the prosecution also launching an appeal arguing that Luis Rubiales’ sentence was too lenient and that the judge was wrong not to convict on the coercion charges.
Just last month, on Wednesday 25th June, it was subsequently announced that Luis Rubiales had lost his appeal against his sexual assault conviction. The Court upheld the original fine of 10,800 euros, and it also dismissed the separate appeal for retrial from the prosecutors, who pushed for a jail sentence for Rubiales.
“It’s not fair,” Rubiales states in the documentary, when talking about the court’s original verdict in February. “When I received the verdict, I saw the judge gave me the smallest punishment, but in fact, it’s a punishment. I will appeal this decision, because this behaviour is not a sexual assault. I will not be happy until the moment a court will say I am free of everything.”
“This is a long fight and a long way, and we are not even close to where we want to be,” Hermoso’s teammate Verónica Boquete counters, at the time of the original verdict.
“I have very mixed feelings about this sentencing. You’re finding someone guilty of sexual assault, but virtually giving them no punishment. What kind of message does that actually send?” football journalist Semra Hunter asks. “I really hope that the legacy of all of this does ultimately serve a higher purpose.”
“Every day I wake up, I say ‘this is a new day, I’m going to fight to clean my surname’, because my surname is not mine, it’s the surname of my father, and it’s my daughter’s surname. For me, it’s the dignity,” says Rubiales.
In a statement, the Royal Spanish Football Federation said, “There is currently a new presidency in place, and the officials who were in charge at the time are no longer working here – they were either dismissed or resigned at the time.”