Luis Rubiales fails in appeal against three-year football ban

The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Friday dismissed an appeal by former Spanish football boss Luis Rubiales against a three-year ban from the sport imposed by FIFA for kissing Spain player Jenni Hermoso after the 2023 Women's World Cup final.

The decision by a panel at sport's highest court came a day after Rubiales was found guilty of sexually assaulting Hermoso, ordered to pay more than 10,000 euros (£8,942) in fines and was prohibited from getting within 200 meters of Hermoso or communicating with her for a year.

Rubiales was banned by FIFA in October 2023. 

That barred him from working in football until after the men's 2026 World Cup.

CAS said its panel determined that Rubiales' conduct at the Women's World Cup final 'constituted multiple and serious violations of the FIFA Disciplinary Code and saw no reason to consider the sanction to be disproportionate.

'The CAS Panel ruled that the sanction imposed is reasonable and proportional,' the court said.

On Thursday, Rubiales, 47, was ordered to pay a fine of €20 per day for the next 18 months - a total sum of £8,250 - and cannot go within 200 metres of the striker.

Prosecutors were seeking two and a half years in prison against Rubiales for sexual assault for the forced kiss and allegedly coercing Hermoso to downplay the incident. But he has avoided a custodial sentence in addition to being acquitted on the charge of coercion.

His three co-defendants, former women's national team coach Jorge Vilda, the federation's former sports director of the men's national team, Albert Luque, and the former head of marketing, Ruben Rivera were also found not guilty of the charge.

Rubiales stood accused of sexual assault and coercion for allegedly trying to downplay the kiss that sparked outrage in Spain and around the world and marred the celebrations of the team's first World Cup title.

Earlier this month, Rubiales told the court he was 'totally sure' Hermoso consented to him kissing her on the lips after Spain won the World Cup.

'She squeezed me very tightly under my armpits, she lifted me, and when I came down I asked her if I can give you a kiss, and she said 'OK', that's what happened,' he said.

'What happened had no importance neither for me nor for her,' Rubiales added during his highly anticipated testimony, describing the kiss as 'an act of affection'.

He said the kiss was to mark a unique moment because 'you don't win a World Cup every day,' adding: 'Even when I see my daughters I don't kiss them, but at New Year's Eve we kiss each other.'

Prosecutor Marta Durantez, asked him whether he would have acted the same 'if it had been a man', to which he responded: 'It depends on whether it had been a player with whom I have a great relationship.'

He said that in the national team there were 'three or four players with whom I have a great relationship and one of them was Jenni Hermoso.' 

Referring to celebrations with male footballers, he said that the World Cup win was not comparable to the UEFA Nations League but added: 'I used to kiss a lot of footballers.'  

Hermoso told the court that she 'never' agreed to the kiss, that she had felt 'disrespected' by what Rubiales had done and that it 'stained one of the happiest days of my life.' 

While Rubiales insisted that the kiss was neither illegal nor immoral during the trial, the football boss admitted that it had been a mistake.

'It was a mistake, I was the president of the federation and from the outset I recognised it was a mistake,' he said. 'I acted like an athlete who was a member of the group and I should have adopted a more institutional role.'

Rubiales resigned under pressure three weeks after the scandal surfaced and was banned by FIFA for three years. He had said he was the victim of a 'witch hunt' by 'false feminists.'

The kiss prompted outrage in Spain about the prevalence of sexism in sports and beyond.