Barcelona, August 2023. As a result of the events that took place this morning and the perplexity of the speech made by the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, Mr. Luis Manuel Rubiales Béjar, the players of the senior national team, recent world champions, in support of Jennifer Hermoso, wish to express their firm and resounding condemnation of conduct that has violated the dignity of women.
In view of the statements made by the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, Jennifer Hermoso wishes to categorically deny that she consented to the kiss that was given to her by Mr. Luis Manuel Rubio at the World Cup Final. "I want to clarify that, as was seen in the images, at no time did I consent to the kiss he gave me and, of course, in no case did I seek to lift up the president. I do not tolerate my word being called into question and much less that they invent words that I did not say".
From our union we want to stress that no woman should have to answer back to the blunt images that everyone has seen and, of course, they should not be involved in unacceptable attitudes.
The players of the Spanish national football team, current world champions, expect strong responses from the public authorities so that actions such as those contained in this document do not go unpunished.
We would like to end this statement by calling for real structural changes that will help the national team to continue to grow, in order to be able to pass on this great success to future generations. It fills us with sadness that such an unacceptable act is tarnishing the greatest sporting success of Spanish women's football.
After everything that happened during the Women's World Cup medal ceremony, we would like to state that all of the players who have signed this letter will not return to a call-up to the national team if the current management continues.
"I'm so, so proud. We've been fighting for this for so long, and we had a clear goal we wanted to inspire young girls, young people around this country and around the world. And I really think we did that tonight. Anything is possible!"