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."
