Spain manager Montse Tome on Monday denied “punishing” Jenni Hermoso by dropping her after ex-football federation chief Luis Rubiales forcibly kissed her at the 2023 Women’s World Cup final.
Rubiales will testify on Tuesday in a trial viewed as a case against macho culture and sexism in sport after the kiss in Australia sparked a worldwide scandal.
Prosecutors are seeking two and a half years in prison for Rubiales, one year for sexual assault for the forced kiss and 18 months for allegedly coercing Hermoso, 34, to downplay the incident.
Rubiales, 47, has called the kiss a “peck between friends celebrating” and denied any coercion.
Tome took the helm of the women’s team in September 2023 after her predecessor Jorge Vilda, also on trial for alleged coercion, was sacked during the uproar surrounding the kiss.
She told the National Court near Madrid that “sporting issues” led her to omit Hermoso — the all-time top scorer for the national women’s team — from her first squad following the incident.
“Jenni had not trained enough” and had only played a few minutes with her Mexican club Pachuca, Tome said.
“She was going through a very unpleasant situation and the media pressure we were having made me take the decision… there were other players in a better position to represent the team,” Tome continued.
“It was an exceptional situation and we were protecting her from the media, but of course everything is absolutely a sporting decision. It was not a punishment.”
Last week, Hermoso’s brother Rafael Hermoso told the court Vilda had threatened “professional and personal consequences” if the star forward did not appear with Rubiales in a video downplaying the incident.
Tome said she was “totally the one responsible” for not calling up Hermoso “as we take consensual decisions with my technical team.”
Hermoso, who transferred to another Mexican side Tigres in 2024, has since appeared for Spain but the scandal cast a shadow over the team’s World Cup victory.
The trial, which began a week ago, continues.
