Spain males’s coach says he was unaware of efforts to downplay Rubiales kiss

The coach of Spain’s males’s soccer crew, Luis de la Fuente, has instructed the pressured kiss trial of ex-federation chief Luis Rubiales that he initially knew nothing of the scandal’s scale or efforts to silence it.

Rubiales provoked worldwide outrage for the kiss on Jenni Hermoso after she had simply helped Spain beat England within the 2023 World Cup ultimate in Australia.

The scandal pressured Rubiales to resign in shame that 12 months and has made Hermoso an icon of the combat in opposition to macho tradition and sexism in sport.

Prosecutors are in search of two and a half years in jail for Rubiales, one 12 months for sexual assault for the pressured kiss and 18 months for allegedly coercing Hermoso, 34, to downplay the incident.

Rubiales, 47, has known as the kiss an innocuous “peck between mates celebrating” and denied any coercion.

De la Fuente instructed the nationwide court docket simply outdoors Madrid that on the journey again to Spain he knew nothing a couple of press assertion ready in Hermoso’s title to hush the rising furore.

The boys’s crew coach, appointed throughout Rubiales’ 2018-2023 tenure, stated he came upon concerning the kiss on the airplane however was “unaware of the size” of the backlash.

He denied collaborating in a disaster assembly between prime federation officers on 23 August 2023, saying he “didn’t trade a phrase” with federation press chief Patricia Pérez Requena.

“They instructed me, ‘We’re stepping into an enormous mess with the kiss enterprise’, however we went on to talk about issues that involved me,” De la Fuente stated.

Former communications director Pablo García Cuervo, sacked by the federation after the scandal erupted, defended his position within the drafting of the assertion.

He instructed the court docket he wrote it from an interview Hermoso had given to Spanish media and obtained her permission.

He denied asking Hermoso to seem in a video with Rubiales because the scandal grew again house as a result of he feared she would “change her model”.

“Hermoso is a somewhat influence-prone and fairly manipulable individual, so she will change her opinion,” Cuervo stated.

Hermoso instructed the opening day of the trial on Monday that she felt “disrespected” after a non-consensual kiss that “shouldn’t occur in any social or work setting”.

The trial is because of proceed till 19 February.