Spanish Football Federation regional leaders have called on their president Luis Rubiales to immediately resign after he kissed player Jenni Hermoso.
Rubiales, 46, has been widely criticised after the incident following Spain’s Women’s World Cup final win.
Hermoso, 33, said the kiss on her lips was not consensual.
Earlier, Spanish prosecutors opened a preliminary investigation into whether the incident amounts to a crime of sexual assault.
In other developments on Monday, Rubiales’ mother Angeles Bejar has locked herself in a Spanish church and gone on a hunger strike because of of the “inhuman hunt” against her son. In the evening, hundreds of people gathered in Madrid in support of Hermoso and in protest of Rubiales.
Rubiales was suspended on Saturday by world football’s governing body Fifa, a day after he had insisted he would not resign.
“After recent events and the unacceptable behaviour that has seriously damaged the image of Spanish football, the presidents request that Luis Rubiales resign immediately as president of the RFEF,” the federation (RFEF) said in a statement on Monday, after an extraordinary meeting of its regional presidents.
The presidents also gave their “unanimous support” to interim RFEF chief Pedro Rocha and called for an overhaul of the federation’s management.
“We will urge the relevant authorities to carry out a profound and imminent organisational restructuring in strategic positions of the federation in order to make way for a new stage in the management of Spanish football,” the statement added..
Details later…
BBC Sport
