Ex-footballer Luis Rubiales will go on trial over the World Cup kissing scandal

Spain's former football chief will go on trial over his World Cup kissing scandal.

A judge ruled yesterday that there was “hard evidence” that the kiss Luis Rubiales, 46, gave to Jenni Hermoso, 33, was “not consensual.”

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Rubiales grabbed the striker by the head and kissed her after Spain's World Cup victory over England in Australia last year.

Ms. Hermoso later filed a criminal complaint.

A Madrid judge heard evidence to decide whether the former president of Spain's football federation should be tried for assault and coercion.

De Jorge, who has already interrogated the former football boss and his alleged victim separately in closed sessions at Spain's centralized court Audiencia Nacional, said in a five-page ruling made public today: “The investigation established the existence of solid evidence brought to light. Luis Manuel Rubiales Bejar did not give the player Jennifer Hermoso a consensus and was a one-sided and surprising initiative on his part.

“Whether there was no erotic intention or whether it was a result of the state of euphoria and excitement experienced as a result of the extraordinary sporting triumph that preceded it is something to be appreciated in a public trial.”

Rubiales, who faces up to four years in prison, denies criminal wrongdoing.

Ms Hermoso's former coach Jorge Vilda, FA marketing manager Rubén Rivera and men's team sporting director Albert Luque are now also on trial for pressuring her to say the kiss was consensual.