LUIS Rubiales, the disgraced former chief of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), was pelted with eggs at a book launch event in Madrid on Thursday night – by his own uncle.
The 48-year-old was speaking about his new book, Matar a Rubiales (‘Killing Rubiales’) when an audience member launched three eggs towards the stage after shouting: “Don’t worry, nothing’s up!”
Two of the eggs splattered Rubiales, who leapt off the stage in an attempt to confront the assailant.
According to reports in Spanish media, the attacker – who has been arrested by police – has been identified as his own uncle, also called Luis Rubiales.
READ MORE: Luis Rubiales avoids jail over ‘non-consensual kiss’ after judge throws out appeal
After returning to the stage, the former RFEF president said: “He was carrying eggs and throwing them at me, but I didn’t know what he had in his hands and when I was him, I thought he had a weapon. So I ran quickly towards him.
“We were lucky that they stopped me. I didn’t know what this man had in his hand, I didn’t know if he had a weapon.
“I saw a pregnant woman, who is my friend Paco’s wife, with two small children, right where he was standing with something in his hand, and I thought about the children.
“If I had grabbed him, we would be in a different situation.”
Earlier this year, Rubiales avoided jail over the ‘non-consensual kiss’ he planted on footballer Jenni Hermoso after Spain’s National Court upheld the original conviction and threw out an appeal launched by Hermoso’s legal team.
Rubiales overshadowed Spain’s Women’s World Cup final triumph over England in 2023 after he grabbed Hermoso by the head and kissed her on the lips in front of millions of viewers.
Spanish prosecutors had been seeking a prison term of two-and-a-half years for sexual assault after Hermoso and her teammates claimed the kiss was unconsensual and not, as Rubiales claimed, a ‘consensual peck’.
But in February, Rubiales was only handed a paltry fine of €10,800 for the offence, small change in comparison to the annual salary of over €630,000 he enjoyed in his capacity as president of the RFEF, a role he held for five years until he resigned in disgrace in September 2023.
The former UEFA vice-president was also found not guilty over allegations he pressured Hermoso, 35, into publicly saying the kiss was consensual.
During her testimony, Hermoso insisted she had not given consent over the kiss, which she claimed ‘strained one of the happiest days of my life’.
“My boss was kissing me and this should not happen in any social or work setting,” she told court earlier this year.
Rubiales is currently serving a three-year ban from all football-related activity.
In April 2024, Rubiales was arrested in Madrid amid a corruption investigation into the controversial relocation of the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia.
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