THE president of a Madrid-based football club has stepped down in disgrace after a video emerged of him chasing the side’s Muslim players with a leg of Spanish ham and urging them to ‘suck it’.
Javi Poves quit his role at fourth-tier CDC Moscardo after footage of the incident went viral on social media, according to reports.
“To check whether this is good quality, come with me,” Poves says in a video, before running over to one of the club’s Muslim players.
He then waves the leg of cured ham in the footballer’s face while saying: “Take this, eat it, suck it, suck it, suck it.”
The player appears to back away before Poves returns to the camera.
Touching and eating pork is strictly forbidden in Islam, as it is considered physically and ritually impure.
In a statement, the 39-year-old said: “It was for entertainment! We took the video down because it didn’t please everyone, and I think some people also want to use it to attack Moscardo.
“It’s unacceptable. They can’t use me to attack the club. It’s shameful that something done with kindness, a joke, not serious, is being associated with religion, with disrespect, with low morality.
“To everyone who was offended, I am sorry, but I think you are heading down the wrong path.
“I’m now going to prepare for my next role in life, which will be as a shepherd. I’m training to be a pastor so I can take care of sheep, grow tomatoes…aubergines. To everyone who has supported everything I’ve done at the club, I thank you immensely.”
The latest stunt is far from the former professional footballer’s first brush with controversy.
A defender by trade, he quit playing in 2011 after one substitute appearance in La Liga for Sporting de Gijon, citing reasons of conscience.
“What I’ve seen from within makes it clear: professional football is only money and corruption. It’s capitalism, and capitalism is death,” he said.
In 2019, he became president of Mostoles Balompie before renaming the club Flat Earth FC, in reference to the disproven idea about the shape of the planet.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the club made several social media posts denouncing the use of face masks and vaccines to counter the spread of the virus.
CDC Moscardo are named after Jose Moscardo Ituarte, a former Spanish military officer and ally of fascist leader Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War.
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