Uncle’s criticism of Luis Rubiales suggests split in Spanish football chief’s family
The mother of the embattled Spanish football chief, Luis Rubiales, has ended her hunger strike three days after she shut herself into a church in southern Spain, as a series of interviews with his uncle hinted at a split in how the family views the unsolicited kiss by federation president after the Women’s World Cup final.
Earlier this week Ángeles Béjar made headlines around the world as she announced plans to remain “indefinitely, day and night” in a church as she began a hunger strike over what she described as the “inhumane and bloodthirsty” persecution of her son.
It was a surprising twist to a saga that has gripped Spain since Rubiales, 46, grabbed the forward Jenni Hermoso by the head, pulled her towards him and planted a kiss on her lips during the World Cup medal ceremony. After initially dismissing those behind the mounting outrage as “idiots and stupid people”, Rubiales sought to portray the kiss as consensual.
Hermoso later said that the situation had left her feeling “vulnerable and a victim of aggression”. The kiss took place “without any type of consent from my part”, she added.
As Fifa said it had provisionally suspended Rubiales, and the regional leaders of the football federation called on him to resign from his position as president, the small city of Motril and the 19th-century church where Rubiales mother was sleeping on a mattress became the last bastion of public support for the football chief.
On Wednesday the parish priest of the church said Béjar had been taken to hospital. “It’s because of the heat and everything else,” he told reporters, adding that anxiety had played a role. One day later a source close to the family told Europa Press that the septuagenarian had ended her hunger strike and had spent the night at home after being released from the hospital in good condition late on Wednesday.
Rubiales’s uncle, Juan Rubiales, spoke to several media outlets across Spain. Juan – who had a high-profile falling out with his nephew, who he said fired him from his job at the football federation in 2020 – said he respected Rubiales’s mother and knew she was suffering.
“We Rubialeses are absolutely committed to the idea of dignity,” Juan told the news site El Confidential. “And dignity is to defend Jenni, to understand her, and to reproach the shameful behaviour of this president.”
He added: “I think he needs a social re-education programme and a re-education in his relationship with women.”
He described his nephew as a man “obsessed with power, luxury, money and women”. In a separate interview with the newspaper El Mundo, he added that his nephew was a “man with a clear machista [sexist] tinge”.
Luis Rubiales did not respond to a request for comment put to the Spanish football federation.