““I haven’t spoken to anyone from the federation about kisses or statements or statements.”assured the marketing director of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Ruben Rivera, in his statement on the 10th as a defendant before the judge of the National Court Francisco de Jorge, instructor of the Rubiales casefor the kiss that the former president of the RFEF gave to the player Jenni Hermoso after the World Cup final that the Spanish team won.
In the full transcript of his statement before the magistrate, to which EL PERIÓDICO has had access, Rivera distances himself from the crime of coercion attributed to him by the judge and from the specific question of whether someone from the federation insisted that he speak with Jenni Hermoso. , responded with “of course not.”
He then added: “The The most reliable proof of this is that Jennifer Hermoso herself addressed me in the hours after the very brief contacts I had had with her.. She addresses me the next day when they leave the island (Ibiza) and so one after another, all the players, thanking me recognizing the work what he had done.”
Monday’s showdown
Rivera, who is summoned again this Monday at the National Court to undergo a confrontation with Ana Belén Ecube, Hermoso’s friend, to rule out discrepancies between the statements of both in court, assured that he was only “half aware” of the repercussion media that had had the kiss. “Half conscious I tell you. Half conscious. Because I repeat and it can be verified, “I was working 20 or 22 hours a day, without exaggerating in many things.”
He downplayed the importance of speaking with Jenni Hermoso and said he had not given it “greater importance because he was busy with the security of the World Cup”, in the clubs where the players and their friends would go, as well as taking care of his sister’s baby. of a soccer player. He justified the fact that he offered to charge Hermoso’s cell phone and told him to try to locate the one he was Director of Integrity, Miguel García Cabafor his report in relation to what happened during the medal ceremony, in which it was “the federation employee” who was in Ibiza with the players and acted as a “switchboard”. “Mr. Rubiales does not contact me at any time,” he stated.
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However, he denied that he acted with “insistence” to get Jenni to speak with García Caba and with the also accused, the director of the Spanish team, Albert Luque. When asked by the parties, he admitted that he only wanted to talk to the player who reported the kiss that Rubiales had given her.
He assured that he did not speak with García Caba while he was charging Jenni Hermoso’s cell phone. “That is completely uncertain. No one in 5 minutes has had a cell phone charged enough to work (…) But in addition to that, Mr. Miguel García called him once and I never heard anything again.”