'She knows she's being untrue' - Former RFEF president Luis Rubiales insists Jenni Hermoso consented to 'a peck' before 2023 World Cup medal ceremony

Former Spanish FA president Luis Rubiales has accused Jenni Hermoso of lying about the kiss he gave her after the Women's World Cup final.

Rubiales has insisted to Spain's National Court that the Spanish striker gave him consent to kiss her during the medal ceremony. The 46-year-old sparked controversy when he kissed Hermoso on the lips following Spain's 2-1 defeat of England in the World Cup final on August 20. Hermoso claimed that the kiss was non-consensual, and Rubiales resigned from his position three weeks after the incident.

"She knows perfectly well that she is being untrue," Rubiales told prosecutors, as reported by El Espanol.

"At the medal ceremony, I was hugging the players, the coach, when she passed by. She comes to me to give me a hug. We hug, she lifts me up and I make a gesture so as not to fall, all this with a conversation in which I remind her — because she had missed a penalty — to cheer her up a little, that without her we couldn't have won the World Cup. 

«She tells me I'm a crack [an endearing slang term in Spanish], thank you very much. And then I ask her, 'can I give you a little kiss, a little peck?' And she tells me that it's okay.»

Prosecutors asked Rubiales why he grabbed Hermoso around the head if she had given her consent to be kissed.

"Well, out of joy," he replied. «She grabs me wherever she can, I grab her too and that's it. Two or three minutes later they all grabbed me and pulled me up, swinging me.

»And at that moment I'm not going to say that they shouldn't touch me, excuse me, my butt, my knees or my shoulder. We have won a World Cup and the tremendous euphoria and joy there is indescribable.

"It happened that way because when you win the lottery or a war ends, the war in Ukraine ends or