Former women’s soccer coach Jorge Vilda has acknowledged that he did not activate the anti-harassment protocol after Luis Rubiales kissed Jenni Hermoso. According to sources present at the interrogation, the technician admitted that he knew that a protocol actually existed but not the details of its content and, therefore, it did not occur to him to put it into operation.
Vilda, who was dismissed on September 5, has testified before the head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 1, Francisco de Jorge, as an investigator for the alleged coercion of Hermoso to publicly say that the kiss was consensual. In addition to Hermoso’s now known statements, the player’s brother assured the judge that he received pressure from the then national coach after Rubiales’ kiss.
In a tense interrogation with the prosecutor in the case, Vilda, who was the coach when his team won the World Cup in Sydney, has denied at all times that he pressured Hermoso to come out in defense of Rubiales.
What he explained is that when he saw that the player was nervous on the plane back after winning the Cup, he spoke to his brother, only with the intention of worrying about Hermoso’s condition. In addition, she told him that it would be good for the player to come out publicly to give her version of what happened and thus reduce the “sufflé” of those moments.
In fact, Vilda has assured that the player’s brother downplayed what happened. The former coach has pointed out that he has not understood why he was fired after winning the World Cup.
During his statement, he wanted to put as much distance as possible with Rubiales, the main investigator in the case for allegedly giving a non-consensual kiss to a player and then trying to pressure her to say publicly that it had been an act of affection and euphoria.
Vilda has insisted that he was not part of Rubiales’ circle of trust, but rather was signed by the previous president Ángel María Villar.
After the former coach, Rubén Rivera, marketing director of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and investigator in the case, has declared. In a similar vein to that of Vilda, he has defended that he did not speak with Hermoso about that matter.
He has defined himself before the judge as the “qualified messenger” of the federation, the “delivery boy” – according to sources present during the interrogation – and his role at that time was to organize the players’ trip to Ibiza.
In fact, he has provided messages via WhatsApp from several of them, including Hermoso, thanking him and congratulating him for preparing the trip. According to her, he was in charge of all the details, including buying bikinis for the players or their companions if they asked, getting tickets to clubs and other tasks. According to her, Rubiales did not give her any instructions to talk to Hermoso about the kiss.
