Ángeles Béjar, the mother of Luis Rubiales, president of the Spanish football federation, has this Monday morning locked herself into the Divina Pastora church in the town of Motril and has declared a hunger strike until a solution is found to the "inhumane and bloodthirsty hunt that they are carrying out on my son with something that he does not deserve”. The self-confinement in the church of the Andalusian coastal town will be carried out "indefinitely, day and night" until justice is done for her son, according to statements made by Rubiales' mother to the EFE agency. On Saturday, Rubiales was provisionally suspended from all activity connected with football by FIFA, following six days of controversy over his non-consensual kiss on the mouth of the Spanish international player Jenni Hermoso.
The football adminstrator's mother with her sister remained inside the church, in Motril's Capuchinos neighbourhood, once the parish priest had left. Ángeles Béjar called on Jennifer Hermoso to "tell the truth" and "maintain the version she had at the beginning of the events." She considers that "there is no sexual abuse when there is consent on both sides, as shown in the images", and he wonders "why are they being so cruel to him" and what "is behind all this story", since his son "is incapable of harming anyone." As a mother, she asks everyone for understanding because this situation could happen to anyone, she affirmed.
Pedro Rocha, who assumed the position of president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), gave instructions to call a second extraordinary and urgent meeting of the organization, which will take place this Monday afternoon, to evaluate the situation after Luis Rubiales was provisionally suspended by FIFA on Saturday. Specifically, the RFEF committee of presidents of autonomous and territorial federations will meet. The agenda has two points: the requests, questions, analysis and evaluation of the current situation, and "evaluation of the decisions or actions to adopt".
The federation issued a new statement on Saturday that was critical of the player Jennifer Hermoso but in mid-afternoon the statement was deleted from its website. This text had said that Hermoso misrepresented reality and had been "abducted" by the FUTPRO union.