SFA President Luis Rubiales Needs to Go. Now.

What follows is the statement of Safe Sport International, one of many statements from the international community, regarding Spanish Football Association President Luis Rubiales, whose ongoing behavior toward female athletes is finally being called into question after he forcibly kissed a member of the Women’s National Team after the team won the World Cup:

“Safe Sport International fully supports the Spanish Women’s Football Team players.

We call on FIFA, UEFA, and Member Associations across the World to take action to sanction the Spanish Football Association in line with Football Safeguarding Statutes and Policies. We call upon them to condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the abusive behaviours of members of the Spanish Football Association, including its President and National Women’s Team Coach, which breach the fundamental human rights of their players. Every member of the Football Association who clapped the President at Friday’s Assembly meeting is as complicit as the President himself. If you don’t stand for something, you stand for nothing.

Football authorities must address abusive behaviour towards both football players, staff, and volunteers – regardless of gender identity – as inter-personal violence and invoke a safeguarding response using that Code and the Safe Sport Policy that all stakeholders have agreed to, with no exceptions. This should not just be treated as a risk to the integrity and reputation of the sport. This is why abuses of power in sport need to be dealt with outside of the sport bodies, who fail to recognise and respond to institutionalised abuse in plain sight. These behaviours ruin and cost lives. Now is the time to act.

SSI Trustee Board”