Luis Rubiales could return to work in Spanish football as early as next week if the country’s former FA president can find someone willing to hire him.
In February 2025, Rubiales was found guilty of sexual assault after kissing Spain striker Jenni Hermoso on the lips following the women’s World Cup final victory over England in August 2023.
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The 49-year-old was fined more than €10,000 (£8,350; $11,190 at current rates). He was also ordered to pay a further €3,000 for moral damages and half of Hermoso’s legal costs. The conviction was upheld on appeal in June 2025.
Before that conviction, Rubiales was banned from all football-related activities for three years by the game’s global governing body, FIFA. That suspension started in August 2023 and expired in August this year.
However, Spain’s Administrative Sports Court (Tribunal Administrativo del Deporte) also imposed a suspension that barred Rubiales from working in football in the country for three years from November 17, 2023.
So, what has Rubiales been doing during his time out of the game, and what chances are there of him returning?
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Rubiales pleaded not guilty in court and always fervently denied any wrongdoing, even going on the attack against perceived enemies to defend himself. While refusing to resign as Spain’s FA president during the days immediately after his kiss on Hermoso, he used a speech at the organisation’s headquarters to rail against “false feminists” he said were running a campaign of “social assassination” against him.
In late August 2023, his mother went on hunger strike in her home town of Motril in Andalusia, protesting against what she said was an “inhumane and bloody hunt” against her son.
When it became clear to Rubiales he could no longer continue as Spain’s FA president, he looked to shape the narrative around his exit when resigning in an interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored in early September.
That December, he did a similar interview with Luis ‘Alvise’ Perez, a far-right Spanish internet personality, claiming that Spain’s socialist government had made a big deal of his kissing Hermoso to distract voters from their dealings with Catalan separatist politicians.
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In March 2024, Rubiales was again making headlines when his property in Granada was raided as part of an anti-corruption investigation.
Ordered by a judge to return from the Dominican Republic, where he was then living, Rubiales was detained by officers at Madrid’s Barajas airport and questioned as part of an investigation into how Spanish FA funds were spent across a number of different schemes linking Spain, the Dominican Republic, Saudi Arabia and China.
Rubiales invoked his right not to testify and was released, but he did tell Spanish TV station La Sexta that week that he was upset that his bank accounts had been frozen.
“All the money I’ve transferred from Spain to the Dominican Republic is legal,” he said. “I’ve never taken a mordida (a ‘bite’, or an illegal commission). I’ve suffered such a media beating that I cannot work in Spain, in football or anything else.”
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The judicial investigation into Rubiales’ activities during his Spanish FA presidency remains active, including looking at the €40million-a-year arrangement to play the Supercopa de Espana in Saudi Arabia, which was brokered in 2019 by then-Barcelona player Gerard Pique. Both have denied any wrongdoing.
During his time out of football, Rubiales has been involved in various business activities, although without much evident success.
In January 2024, he moved into cryptocurrency by launching an NFT with South Korean company Moon Labs. The publicity material invited those who were against “extremism and radical feminism” to invest. Very few actually sold and the price soon plummeted.
A former defender at Spanish clubs Valencia, Levante and Xerez who finished his career with three Scottish Premier League appearances for Hamilton Academical in 2009, Rubiales has more recently authored a book. Matar a Rubiales (Kill Rubiales) was published in November 2025.
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Promoting this book on Spanish tabloid TV show El Chiringuito, Rubiales said that month: “I won’t apologise to Jenni Hermoso today because I asked her (for permission to kiss her) and she said ‘OK’.”
That claim was denied by Hermoso and rejected by the judge during last year’s trial.
A later book launch in Madrid was interrupted when Rubiales’ uncle, Luis Ruben Rubiales, heckled his nephew from the audience, calling him shameless as he threw eggs towards him before being removed by security.
Speaking on Ingenios Podcast in May, Rubiales was asked if he would return to football at any point.
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“No federation, no club, no league, in any sport, grew like the Spanish federation when I was president,” he replied.
“I’m proud of that, and it shows I made good hiring decisions. But now I’m focused on other things, on getting justice, on my family, my daughters, and my investments in hotels and tourist accommodation in Granada, the Costa del Sol and the Dominican Republic.”
Very few of Rubiales’ former allies now work at the Spanish FA, and those who do have been very clear to distance themselves from their former boss. Rubiales’ long-time rival, La Liga president Javier Tebas, is also now a Spanish FA vice-president with an influential role in its activities.
Even if Rubiales wanted to return to work within the Spanish game, few top-level opportunities would likely be available to him given his stock has plummeted just as precipitously as his crypto token.
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Yet in truth, the possibility that someone in Spain, or elsewhere, might take a bet on hiring him cannot be completely discounted — despite, or maybe even because of, his past record and current stances.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Spain, Soccer, International Football, La Liga, Women’s Soccer, FIFA Women’s World Cup
2026 The Athletic Media Company
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