Spanish association president Luis Rubiales kissed a national team player on the mouth against his will. This developed into a major scandal that ended up in court. Now the 48 year old man tells his version in a book. There was a scandal during the presentation.
Former Spanish football president Luis Rubiales was attacked with an egg at the launch of a book about his version of the kissing scandal. As seen in a video distributed by Spanish media, a man threw several eggs at the 48-year-old man while shouting “bastard”.
While the first egg clearly missed the 48-year-old, the second hit Rubiales in the back as he turned around. As the former association head rushed towards the attacker, a third egg flew towards him, which he was able to repel with his hand.
Several people then prevented Rubiales from attacking the egg thrower. He is quickly defeated and taken away. “I was lucky they stopped me; I don’t know if he was armed,” Spanish sports newspaper AS quoted him as saying. Apparently the man was not a foreigner, but according to reports, he was Rubiales’ own uncle, Juan.
Banned by FIFA for three years
On August 20, 2023, Rubiales kissed Jennifer Hermoso on the mouth at the awards ceremony after the Spanish footballer’s World Cup victory in Sydney. The player later explained that this happened without his consent. A month later, Rubiales resigned from his post under public pressure and legal backlash over the incident. FIFA banned him for three years. The case sparked a global debate about the relationship of power and respect in professional sports.
Juan Rubiales was once his nephew’s office manager, but soon turned his back on him, as he explained in a 2023 interview: “He called me into the office and addressed me as Juan. Before, he always called me uncle. Then he told me that I could no longer call him Luis. I had to address him as president.” His nephew was drunk on power and had to fail, said Rubiales, who openly sided with Hermoso.
Rubiales denounced the conspiracy
In February 2025, Rubiales was sentenced by the court to a fine of 10,800 euros and a one-year ban on contact with Hermoso for sexual aggression. This decision was also confirmed by the appeals court to which Rubiales appealed.
Rubiales argued at trial that the kiss was an expression of spontaneous excitement, without sexual intent. However, the judge emphasized that sexual aggression does not require libidinal or explicit sexual intent – the only determining factor is a lack of explicit consent.
In the book with the original title “Matar a Rubiales” (Killing the Rubiales) he presents his version of the non-consensual kiss and denounces the media and political conspiracy against it: “I will not change. What happened is over; I did not lie. I am not thinking about returning to the Federation.”
SUF with dpa
