There have been yet more twists in the controversy that surrounds Spanish football federation president Luis Rubiales, with fresh footage from the Women’s World Cup final disapproving claims Jenni Hermoso lifted him up.
At a heated assembly meeting on Friday, the 46-year-old football chief repeatedly refused to resign over his forced kiss on Hermoso and even described it as a ‘simple peck’.
Shortly afterwards, the Spanish FA then claimed it was Hermoso who had instigated the clinch and lifted up Rubiales during the presentation ceremony, producing several photographs and branding her claims ‘lies’.
That statement, in which the Spanish football federation threatened to sue Hermoso, was later deleted but it prompted a furious backlash from around the world, while FIFA provisionally suspended Rubiales.
Since his animated speech on Friday, Rubiales has been lying low but on Monday Spanish prosecutors opened a preliminary investigation into whether the incident amounts to a crime of s
sexual assault while the Spanish football federation’s regional leaders urged him to resign.
Now claims that the kiss was ‘mutual’ appear to have been rubbished by a fresh, wide-angle video of the presentation which contradicts Rubiales and the Spanish FA’s interpretation of what happened.
In the footage, it is Rubiales who appears to lift his feet off the ground and effectively jump up into Hermoso’s arms, with the forward herself remaining largely motionless.
