Luis Rubiales News: Spanish FA president's mother's hunger strike enters second day

Luis Rubiales' mother has locked herself in a church and is going on a hunger strike in order to end the "inhumane witch-hunt" on her son as the Spanish Football Federation (Rfef) held an emergency meeting on Monday.

Rubiales was suspended by Fifa for kissing Women's World Cup winner, Jenni Hermoso, on the lips in an act the footballer says she did not consent to. Fifa banned Rubiales from all football-related activity for 90 days over his conduct and have launched an investigation into his behaviour, while Spanish police are now investigating the federation president for alleged sexual assault.

Following his refusal to resign, the Spanish women's national team signed a letter stating their intent not to play for the country until Rubiales is removed from his role and the coaching staff – excepting manager Jorge Vilda – have all walked out. And in bizarre new developments, the Spanish FA requested that Uefa excludes their national and club teams from all European competitions because of Spanish government intervention in the crisis - a request which Uefa has denied. Now the Rfef have finally asked Rubiales to resign, with the matter seemingly coming to a head on Tuesday.

Last Friday, Luis Rubiales addressed an emergency meeting of Spanish federation delegates but rather than apologising to Hermoso and expressing regret for ruining the biggest moment of the Spain players' careers he painted himself as the victim of a witch-hunt.

As he kept reiterating his refusal to resign, Rubiales – now suspended by Fifa – drew loud cheers from several delegates. Those applauding him included Jorge Vilda and Luis de la Fuente, managers of Spain's women's and men's teams respectively. I found that quite sad.

Both men have since performed volte-faces and condemned the kiss, while on Monday the Spanish football federation's regional presidents demanded Rubiales immediately resign, but it's hard to forget that they clapped Rubiales and that Vilda had been kept in his job in the face of long-running player complaints regarding his allegedly controlling behaviour.

Perhaps only Luis Rubiales could have been sufficiently brass-necked to unmask his true self on such a grand platform in the full glare of the world's cameras, and alongside Spain's wonderfully dignified Queen Letizia, but his cheerleaders have been enablers. Their complicity facilitated Hermoso's excruciating discomfiture. It dictated that even as she and her outstanding teammates beat England a certain type of man, with a certain attitude towards women, continued to undervalue them.