Women’s  World Cup soccer champs will resign en masse if Spanish boss fails to step down

The 23 international players who were proclaimed champions of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand this August, announced in a statement released by their FutPro association, their resignation from continuing to attend the national team calls while Luis Rubiales remains President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF).

“After everything that happened during the Women’s World Cup, we want to state that all the players who sign this letter will not return to a call for the National Team if the current leaders continue,” they communicated in the letter in which Jenni Hermoso censors the words of Rubiales at the Extraordinary General Assembly held this Friday. 

Luis Rubiales, harassed by criticism for his forced kiss to the player Jenni Hermoso in the World Cup final, refused t Friday to resign in an extraordinary assembly of the federation.

“I am not going to resign, I am not going to resign,” Rubiales repeated in the Assembly, defying the multiple requests of the last days.

The president of the RFEF asked for “unmitigated forgiveness” for his behavior in the box of authorities in the World Cup final that Spain won and admitted having been “wrong” in his subsequent kiss to Hermoso, but described it as “spontaneous, mutual, euphoric and consented.”

The soccer players who signed the statement are the 23 world champions: Jennifer Hermoso, Alèxia Putellas, Misa Rodríguez, Irene Paredes, Ona Batlle, Mariona Caldentey, Teresa Abelleira, María Pérez, Cata Coll, Aitana Bonmati, Laia Codina, Claudia Zornoza, Oihane Hernández, Rocío Gálvez, Irene Guerrero, Alba Redondo, Athenea del Castillo, Eva Navarro, Enith Salón, Ivana Andrés, Olga Carmona, Esther González and Salma Paralluelo.

 In addition, over a score of top-ranked women soccer players added their names to the statement.