Athletes will not return to the national team if the president does not resign – 08/25/2023 – Sport

About 80 players from Spain, including the 23 world champion athletes, released a statement this Friday (25) in which they state that “they will not accept a call-up to the national team again” if Luis Rubiales remains at the head of the presidency of the Royal Federation. Spanish Football League (RFEF).

The position is a form of support for Jenni Hermoso, an athlete forcibly kissed by the leader during the World Cup awards ceremony in Australia and New Zealand.

In a note signed jointly with the companions with whom he won the title over England, Hermoso stated that the kiss was not consensual.

“I want to clarify that as you can see in the images, in no case did I consent to the kiss he gave me,” she said in the statement. “I do not tolerate that my word is questioned, much less that words that I did not say are invented”.

Hermoso reacted in this way to the statements of Luis Rubiales, this Friday morning, guaranteeing in the Extraordinary Assembly of the Spanish Federation that the kiss was “spontaneous, mutual, euphoric and consented”.

At the World Cup medal ceremony, however, he held the player’s head and kissed her on the mouth after Spain defeated England 1-0 in the final.

“The players of the senior national team, recent world champions, in support of Jennifer Hermoso, want to express their firm and forceful condemnation of behaviors that violated the dignity of women”, says the statement published on the website of Futpro, the women’s football union from Spain.

The champions “expect strong responses from public authorities so that actions do not go unpunished”.

The signatories of the note call for “real structural changes that help the main team to continue to grow” and threaten not to wear the national team shirt again if there are no changes in the leadership of the federation.

“All players who sign this letter will not return to the squad if the current leaders continue,” the statement said.

“It fills us with sadness that such an unacceptable event manages to tarnish the greatest sporting success of Spanish women’s football”, concludes the text.