New footage has emerged of Luis Rubiales’ infamous World Cup kiss that contradicts the disgraced Spanish football chief’s claims about the incident.
Rubiales has been suspended by FIFA, but he is still refusing to quit his post as president of the Spanish football federation after being roundly condemned for forcibly kissing a Spanish player on the mouth following the Women’s World Cup final.
After Spain’s 1-0 win over England in the final in Sydney Rubiales gave midfielder Jennifer Hermoso an unsolicited kiss on the lips. He also celebrated victory by grabbing his genitals.
Rubiales came under unprecedented pressure to resign, with days of criticism from figures including Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez.
Rubiales initially defended the kiss as “Two people showing each other a minor show of affection”, adding of questions over his conduct: “This idiocy should be ignored”.
He claimed the kiss was “consensual” but Hermoso insists she never consented to a kiss on the lips.
At an emergency meeting of the Spanish federation, Rubiales claimed Hermoso lifted him up and the kiss was a mutual interaction.
“Jenni was the one who lifted me up,” he said. “I told her to ‘forget about the penalty’ and I said to her ‘a little peck?’ and she said ‘OK’.”
But new footage from a different angle in Sydney’s Stadium Australia shows Rubiales jumped into Hermoso’s arms, lifting himself off his feet before kissing her on the lips.
In a further twist, more footage has surfaced that appears to show Hermoso laughing on Spain’s team bus as she showed a screenshot of the infamous kiss on her phone to teammates.
The screengrab shows Rubiales’ kiss with Hermoso alongside a photo of former Spanish international Iker Casillas locking lips with reporter and his then-girlfriend Sara Carbonero as she interviewed him live after the men’s team won the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Another woman on the team bus was overheard laughing: ‘Like Iker and Sarah’ as Jenni continued to show off her phone.
Several of Hermoso’s teammates are then seen singing ‘Beso, Beso’, Spanish for ‘Kiss, Kiss’ as Rubiales got on the team bus, before he told the team, “Stop, you’re making me blush!”
Hermoso has played down the gesture, but has also spoken of her discomfort.
“I didn’t like it,” she said on an Instagram live stream after the game, although she was smiling as she spoke.
Later Hermoso said the moment was a “natural gesture of affection”.
“It was a totally spontaneous mutual gesture because of the immense joy that winning a World Cup brings,” said Hermoso, in comments passed to AFP by the Spanish federation.
“The president and I have a great relationship, his behaviour with all of us has been outstanding and it was a natural gesture of affection and gratitude.
“A gesture of friendship and gratitude cannot be gone over so much, we have won a World Cup and we are not going to deviate from what is important.”
Meanwhile, Rubiales’ mother has been taken to hospital on the third day of her hunger strike.
Angeles Bejar, who began her protest against her son’s treatment inside the Divina Pastora church in the southern seaside town of Motril, was evacuated and taken to hospital by the emergency services.
Rubiales’ mother had promised to stay locked up in the church until Jenni Hermoso, the player who was kissed on the mouth by her son, “tells the truth” about what happened, a family member explained.
— With AFP