Seventy-nine female Spanish soccer players and at least one male player are refusing to compete until Royal Spanish Football Federation president Luis Rubiales steps down for kissing multiple players and grabbing his crotch after the team won the World Cup on Sunday, Aug. 20. Video shows him kissing player Jenni Hermoso on the lips while she receives her medal, an action Spain's equality minister Irene Montero called "a form of sexual violence."
On Friday, Rubiales announced that he would not resign, calling his critics "false feminists" and accusing them of attempting "social assassination." "Do you think this is so serious that I should go, after the best management in the history of Spanish football?" he said shortly before the Spanish government stepped in and announced an investigation into his actions. "Let me tell you: I'm not going to resign. I'm not going to resign. I'm not going to resign."
In an open letter, the Spanish World Cup squad and 56 additional players condemn Rubiales and refuse to play if he continues as a manager. Hermoso's own statement refutes Rubiales' claims that the kiss was consensual. "I felt vulnerable and a victim of an impulse-driven, sexist, out of place act without any consent on my part," she said, adding that the organization has been pressuring her to issue a statement to defend Rubiales. "We as a team do not deserve such a manipulative, hostile, and controlling culture."
Much of the soccer world has spoken out against Rubiales, including two U.S. soccer players, Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe. Morgan shared she was "disgusted" and Rapinoe, when asked about it by The Atlantic, said, "What kind of upside-down world are we in?"
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