Soccer-Spanish court throws out Rubiales' pre-kiss defamation lawsuit

FILE PHOTO: Former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation Luis Rubiales is pictured after leaving the high court in Madrid, Spain - September 15, 2023 REUTERS/Isabel Infantes/File Photo

MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish court has dismissed a lawsuit by disgraced ex-soccer federation chief Luis Rubiales against coach Javier Clemente who had called Rubiales a "dangerous and ambitious guy" seeking "to get rich", qualifying his comments as free speech.

In its ruling seen by Reuters on Monday and dated Sept. 1 - amid an unrelated scandal over Rubiales' behaviour at the Women's World Cup last month - the Madrid court said that "we are dealing with a pure exercise of the right to freely express an opinion about a person who, moreover, is a public figure".