Last Friday night, Spain’s women’s team played their first game since Luis Rubiales was found guilty of sexual assault for kissing Jenni Hermoso after the 2023 Women’s World Cup final. 

Spain came from 2-0 down against Belgium in Valencia with 20 minutes left to win a thrilling game 3-2. Hermoso was not involved, having again been left out of the squad by coach Montse Tome. But she was on the minds of many.

Today during Spain – Belgium. A woman and her daughter went to the match to give support to Jennifer Hermoso even if she was not in the call-up. pic.twitter.com/7jQnW530OW

— Laia Cervelló Herrero (@Laia_Cervello) February 21, 2025

A day earlier, judge Jose Manuel Clemente Fernandez-Prieto found Rubiales, the former president of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), guilty of sexual assault and issued him with a fine of more than €10,000 (£8,300; $11,400) for the kiss on Hermoso as she received her World Cup winners’ medal. The judge found Rubiales and his three co-defendants — former women’s coach Jorge Vilda, ex-Spain men’s team sporting director Albert Luque and former Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) marketing director Ruben Rivera — not guilty of coercion for their efforts to persuade Hermoso to publicly say she had consented to the kiss. Rubiales intends to appeal the decision.

The two-week trial at Spain’s Audiencia Nacional, the country’s high court, in San Fernando de Henares near Madrid demonstrated the RFEF’s lack of respect for Hermoso and her team-mates, going back long before the World Cup.

Spain were far from their best in Friday’s UEFA Nations League game. Belgium’s opening goal followed a mistake by team captain Irene Paredes, who was among the national team players called as witnesses to the trial in Madrid. But they showed impressive collective effort in staging a fightback.

“What we want is to win games,” Arsenal’s Mariona Caldentey said in the stadium’s mixed zone afterward. “It’s been a difficult few months for everyone. Now the sentence is out, everything’s been said and done, we’ve come out to win — and in the end, we’ve done it.”

Recently elected RFEF president Rafael Louzan attended the game in Valencia and has spoken about a new era of openness and inclusivity.

But, for many of those within women’s football in Spain, the feeling is that the battle for full respect and equality goes on.

After the World Cup final in Sydney, many in Spanish society and football spoke about an urgent need for reform. At a moment of intense global focus, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and other government ministers quickly called for action and change.

Once FIFA suspended Rubiales and the eyes of the world drifted away, the impetus for real change and modernisation at the federation’s Las Rozas headquarters also started to stall.

Rubiales’ handpicked successor Pedro Rocha quickly fired Vilda as coach, but replaced him with his assistant, Tome, who had been in that role at the 2023 World Cup. Hermoso was not called up in her first squad, with Tome claiming she wanted to “protect the player”, which she was asked about when she gave testimony in the Rubiales trial. Tome told the court Hermoso was not selected for “sporting” reasons and that “protecting her came into that because of the situation we were experiencing”.

Vilda’s former assistant and current Spain women’s coach, Tome (Jose Miguel Fernandez/NurPhoto)

It was Hermoso and her colleagues who helped force the first real changes. Eighty-one national team players said they would not play for the team until serious reforms were made to end structural sexism at the federation.

After an awkward stand-off — which required mediation from players’ union FUTPRO and government intervention — interim president Rocha agreed to some measures. He fired figures deemed part of Rubiales’ inner circle when he was at the RFEF — former general secretary Andreu Camps, integrity director Miguel Garcia Caba and communications director Pablo Garcia Cuervo.

GO DEEPER

The Rubiales-Hermoso court case revealed so much – and the story is not complete yet

More of Rubiales’ closest associates were forced out in March 2024, including legal adviser Tomas Gonzalez Cueto, when Spanish police raided the federation’s headquarters as part of an investigation into alleged corruption during Rubiales’ time in charge that is still in the evidence-gathering phase. Rubiales and Cueto have both denied any wrongdoing.

Rocha himself was investigated as part of that operation — and the Spanish government tried to force him out too but he denied being involved in any corruption and clung on to power. As the political and legal struggles continued, attempts to implement better structures for women’s football were stymied.

“We could hardly do anything,” FUTPRO president Amanda Gutierrez tells The Athletic of her organisation’s lobbying on behalf of its members, including Hermoso. “There were many situations we wanted to talk about and negotiate, but it was not possible. They could not take significant decisions as Rocha was not a permanent president.”

A lack of professionalism and concern for the team was again shown in November 2023, when Paredes, Ivana Andres, Esther Gonzalez and Caldentey missed a key Nations League game against Switzerland due to mistakes in submitting the official squad to UEFA and then the teamsheet on the day of the game.

The federation did hire Markel Zubizarreta as sporting director of women’s football in November 2023, filling a role Vilda had occupied alongside his coaching role.

Zubizarreta was the architect of Barcelona’s all-conquering women’s team — who won 16 trophies, including four league titles and two Champions League trophies — and was respected by the players. But less than 12 months later he left to become global sporting director at Michele Kang’s Kynisca Sports group, which runs U.S. side Washington Spirit, Lyon in France and London City Lionesses. 

“One of the changes we asked for was to have a proper selection process for hiring staff, not just placing friends or contacts in roles,” Gutierrez says. “Markel was perfectly qualified, with wide experience in the sector. But we had the bad luck that Kang came and made him an offer he could not refuse.”

During the recent trial, the prosecution pointed out that, before the World Cup, the federation had in place a “protocol of action against sexual violence”, under which Rubiales’ actions after the final should have been punishable.

Rubiales admitted while giving evidence to having ratified this protocol “in a hurry” just before the World Cup, under pressure from the government, but claimed not to know its contents. Hermoso and Tome testified they were not aware it existed.

Rubiales during his trial in Madrid (Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images)

In the weeks after Sydney, FUTPRO made a formal complaint to a Spanish government body, which in March 2024 mandated the federation update this protocol and make sure everyone at the RFEF know about it. 

Asked whether these changes had been made, an RFEF spokesperson replied: “The problem here before was not the regulations that existed, it is that they were not applied. This is a new era, Rubiales and his people are all gone now, the difference with the past is like night and day.”

The trial also showed how Hermoso was left completely alone after events in Sydney, as the entire federation apparatus was put in place to protect Rubiales — actions that led to the prosecution charge of coercion against the four accused at the trial.

Most of the staff involved in that operation no longer work at the RFEF. Some of those who still do — such as women’s team press officer Patricia Perez — were fully supportive of Hermoso as they gave evidence at the trial.

Other figures still at the federation were not so clear. Tome appeared to try to steer a neutral course. Luis de la Fuente, the European Championship-winning men’s national team coach, appeared more concerned with protecting his reputation than securing justice for Hermoso. He made multiple attempts to distance himself from any of the discussions about Hermoso and how the RFEF dealt with the fallout from the sexual assault by Rubiales. 

“If a player came out today and made an official complaint, the federation would respond,” Arantxa Uria, vice president of Spain’s Association for Women in Professional Sport, tells The Athletic. “There is now more media attention, which offers protection. We still have the doubt about whether — if it was not made public — how they would act. Jennifer was always very alone, and remains very alone.”

At all international tournaments, FIFA mandates that teams nominate a ‘safeguarding officer’, responsible for protecting all those taking part from harm or abuse. For Spain at the World Cup, this was team psychologist Javier Lopez Vallejo, who said in court he had no formal training in this area, and added that he saw nothing during the tournament that he should have been concerned about. The RFEF did not respond when asked if any current staff had taken any of FIFA’s official safeguarding courses.

While the Rubiales trial took 18 months to be investigated and tried, the regional barons who have long dominated the federation successfully headed off the government’s talk of electoral reform.

Last December, Galician regional president Louzan was elected the new permanent president of the RFEF, despite being found guilty in May 2022 of misuse of public funds during his former job as governor of the city of Pontevedra. That decision was overturned by Spain’s supreme court in February, clearing him to continue in his role at the football federation.

Gutierrez says the idea of a complete outsider — perhaps even a woman — coming in with a clean broom to sweep up the federation was always unlikely.

She argues that some progress has been made. FUTPRO’s lobbying led to Spain internationals Ona Batlle and Patri Guijarro, plus two female referees and two coaches, becoming members of the 142-strong ‘general assembly’, which ultimately controls the federation and elects its president. “That it took until (November) 2024 to have any women’s players in the assembly is crazy, but shows where we are coming from,” Gutierrez says.

In January, a new ‘convention agreement’ was signed between the top division of women’s football in Spain (Liga F) and FUTPRO. That included a strengthening of the league’s own sexual abuse protocol and initiatives to protect mental health — but the minimum wage in Spain’s top division is still just €22,500 a year.

Another high-profile incident took place in Spanish women’s football during the trial. Video footage circulated on social media appearing to show Barcelona defender Mapi Leon inappropriately touching Espanyol player Daniela Caracas during a Liga F clash. 

Espanyol released a statement expressing their “total discontent and condemnation” of an action that they said “violated the privacy” of Caracas. Leon said, “At no time did I violate, nor did I have the intention to violate, the privacy of my professional colleague Daniela Caracas.”

Liga F has not made an official statement on the incident. FUTPRO offered its support to both players to “clarify what happened and help in any relevant way”.

No official action has yet been taken, and Leon — who has not represented Spain since stepping away in protest at problems with Vilda and the RFEF in July 2022 — has continued to play for Barcelona.

GO DEEPER

Espanyol call for action after ‘unacceptable’ Leon incident with Caracas during Liga F game

There are other ways the convention agreement does not appear to have made a significant difference.

“The new agreement signed recently for the women’s players was promoted as a great step forward,” says Uria. “But the players still earn the minimum salary of any Spaniard. There was no real advance.”

Just before the trial started, the federation named a new director of women’s football — Reyes Bellver, a lawyer who has respect among players and others within the game. 

“They are talking about wanting to change things, a lot,” says Uria. “We will have to wait and see what job (Bellver) does, what measures she can take within the federation structure. Just hiring a woman for a certain role is not enough. We want to see real changes made, not just nice words.”

Louzan’s new board of 30 directors features 15 women, as mandated by Spanish law. These include Liga F president Beatriz Alvarez Mesa and Maria Jose Rienda, a former head of the government’s Superior Sports Council (CSD). Although Alvarez is the only female among the eight vice presidents, RFEF sources — who, like all those cited in this article, asked to remain anonymous to speak freely — maintain the new regime is serious about having women in senior positions of power. Other reforms at the federation since Rubiales left include changes made to its government mandated ‘Equality Plan’, a new equality strategy and a new department of equality. 

“We’re going to continue in the line of unity, consensus, hard work and absolute transparency,” Louzan told an assembly meeting that took place during the trial. “The moment has come to do everything that could not be done until now. We’ve initiated a transformation process for this institution, which needs to modernise and adapt to new trends.”

Spain celebrate their late winner against Belgium last week (Jose Miguel Fernandez/NurPhoto.)

Those words have been welcomed, but everyone involved also knows Louzan was a vice president throughout Rubiales’ presidency. The Galician met with the Spanish government on Monday and issues known to be on the agenda included Spain’s hosting of the 2030 men’s World Cup. There have been very few specific reforms implemented that directly help the women’s team.

Louzan has announced that Liga F will receive €2.5million from the RFEF to develop women’s football. The federation declined to specify how much of its €379.6million budget for 2025 would go towards the women’s game, but said it spent significantly more on women’s football than it earned.

This argument is not accepted by Gutierrez, who pointed to Zubizarreta’s role as women’s sporting director remaining currently vacant.

“The players are not asking for the same salary as the men, they’re asking for the same resources — the same installations, hours, transport, equipment, staff,” she says. “This is our battle. Have we achieved that yet? Obviously not. Hopefully, someday, we will have this equality of conditions, and the players will be free to perform to their best level.”

As Caldentey said last Friday, Spain’s women’s team are focused on winning games on the pitch. The issue remains whether their undoubted talent is backed up by structures and support from the federation.

The word from the RFEF is that this is a new era, that the guilty verdict should allow all involved to draw a line and move on. It is not so simple.

“The guilty verdict for sexual assault seems correct, but it’s strange there was no guilty verdict for coercion,” Paredes said at a press conference from the team camp last week. “That sums up what the dressing room feels.”

Tome said last week that “each person can have their own thoughts about something” when asked about the effect of the case on the squad. The coach’s own testimony at the trial did not convince everyone that she fully backed Hermoso and it remains strange to see Spain play without their record all-time goalscorer involved.

“The players are professionals, and they have shown (in the past) they are capable of handling anything,” Gutierrez says. “But it’s true that it would be better if these bad feelings did not exist, and that they could just perform to their best level. The space for improvement is so huge. There is still a long way to go.”

(Top photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)