The Marquis-Superman and the Housewife President of Rayo Vallecano
Rayo Vallecano is a club with no notable football achievements, yet it has managed to gain popularity due to its character and the culture of its fanbase. The club represents not just a neighborhood and its people but also strives to adhere to a particular philosophy. However, many people might not know that much of its rise in football is owed to one of those traditional, old-school owners—steeped in shady dealings and eccentricity. We’ve previously covered such figures, like Jesús Gil and Manuel Ruiz de Lopera, who made history with Atlético Madrid and Real Betis, respectively. Today, we’ll discuss another similar character, less known to the public—José María Ruiz-Mateos, who left his mark on Spanish society and the country’s football scene.
Born in the Cádiz region of Andalusia, Ruiz-Mateos initially continued his father’s business, exporting wine (mainly to England). Later, he founded the company Rumasa with his brothers, which grew exponentially over the years. Rumasa became a massive conglomerate that bought companies with financial troubles and expanded into various sectors, acquiring more and more brands in its portfolio. Rumasa owned perhaps more than twenty local banks from different parts of Spain, hotel chains, wineries, shopping centers, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, construction firms, real estate ventures, cosmetics brands, and more. At its peak, Rumasa owned 230 companies and employed 65.000 workers. As you might imagine, Ruiz-Mateos was a powerful figure in Spain—one of the country’s most prominent businessmen and employers.
And he was… blue-blooded, with noble lineage, as his family had noble roots. In fact, in 1976, the Most Serene Republic of San Marino bestowed upon him the title of Marquis of Olivara, a title later officially recognized by Spain. Beyond his aristocratic ties, Ruiz-Mateos had other affiliations; he was a member of Opus Dei, the Catholic organization (perhaps “sect” isn’t the right word) that gained widespread recognition through “The Da Vinci Code.” It was within Opus Dei that he met his wife, Teresa Rivero (remember the name), with whom he had 13 children, doing his part to tackle Spain’s low birth rate. It was later revealed he had a 14th child from an extramarital affair.
Ruiz-Mateos had extraordinary connections. However, when the socialists won the elections for the first time and Felipe González became Prime Minister in 1982, Ruiz-Mateos caught the eye of the new government. He spoke of being targeted and unfairly pursued by Finance Minister Miguel Boyer. The government argued that Rumasa was obstructing external audits, that its banks hindered the Bank of Spain from investigating them, and that its aggressive acquisition policies were problematic for a conglomerate accumulating debt, among other issues beyond the scope of this article. In 1983, the Spanish state “expropriated” Rumasa, taking control of the conglomerate—a move that sparked significant backlash, as it was seen as a drastic and possibly retaliatory action. For the next thirty years, Ruiz-Mateos would find himself embroiled in legal battles almost constantly. He attacked Minister Boyer, literally and figuratively chasing him everywhere. In one of his trials, he physically assaulted Boyer in front of the cameras—a scene that became etched in Spanish political history. Ruiz-Mateos attempted to assault Boyer two more times, hurled insults at him, challenged him to settle their differences like men, and engaged in other antics. His most notorious stunt was showing up to court dressed as Superman, portraying himself as the superhero battling the Spanish government. In another instance, he dressed as Boyer in a convict’s uniform and even staged a mock funeral for the despised minister, complete with a coffin parading through the streets of Madrid. A firm believer that there is no such thing as bad publicity, he constantly drew media attention, decrying a witch hunt, and continued down this path.
There are certainly plenty of costume options at the Mateos household.
Ruiz-Mateos also set his sights on Boyer’s wife, Isabel Preysler, a popular figure in Spain and the ex-wife of Julio Iglesias (and mother of Enrique). Ruiz-Mateos would appear in court wearing masks of her former boyfriends’ faces, declare that he would marry her because she was beautiful, have graffiti painted on her house walls, and even have chickens thrown outside her door (!). He went so far as to bring forward a woman who claimed to have had a child with Boyer. The pinnacle of his antics was starring in a chocolate commercial with a model who bore a striking resemblance to Preysler. Some of his 13 children helped in these efforts, setting up an ambush and attempting to throw a cake in her face (though her bodyguard managed to protect her). Amidst all this chaos, Ruiz-Mateos even ran for the European Parliament, with his party, and was elected, aiming to secure immunity. He fled abroad, the legal battles continued, and to cut a long story short, he was eventually arrested in Frankfurt, extradited to Spain, and spent some time in prison. Despite losing his company, Ruiz-Mateos made a comeback with… Nueva Rumasa, as if it were a football team in Greece after being dissolved. The new company wasn’t as large as the old one, but it managed to employ up to 6.000 workers.
And finally, it’s time to talk about football. In the spring of 1991, Rayo Vallecano was facing financial difficulties and was in the process of becoming a corporation. Ruiz-Mateos received a phone call: “Vallecas needs you. Come and help; it’s a social cause and a great opportunity.” Ruiz-Mateos, having no clue about football, reached out to his friend Jesús Gil for advice. “Vallecas is an area that people like; you’ll gain social status, but be careful. In football, you lose money. I estimate around 200 million pesetas per year,” warned the seasoned owner of Atlético Madrid. Ruiz-Mateos ultimately took the plunge. The bee we have seen for years on Rayo’s jersey comes from Rumasa, his company. Even the mascot, Rayito, is known for mimicking Ruiz-Mateos’s famous punch against Minister Boyer.
In an incredibly cheesy advertisement, Ruiz-Mateos is shown taking a penalty as a Rayo player, facing his favorite enemy Boyer, who trembles before him, while promoting… a dessert from his companies.
Rayo Vallecano is known for its social conscience, and among other things, it became the first Spanish club to have a female president. But this privilege did not stem from noble intentions. Ruiz-Mateos wanted to avoid signing documents himself for legal reasons, so after three years of presidency, he considered passing the baton. “One day, José María asked me, ‘Would you like to become the president of Rayo? It’s very easy. You just sit in the VIP box during the game and then go home. I had only been to a football stadium once in my life, in Murcia, and that was because we had a meeting about a bank,” recalls Teresa Rivero, Ruiz-Mateos’s wife. Mrs. Teresa, the “proper Catholic wife” who never worked and only had children, accepted the proposal, thus beginning a new era of eccentricity. No one knows what’s true and what’s urban legend, but it’s said that Mrs. Rivero would bring her slippers along, take off her shoes, and wear the slippers in the owner’s box. She didn’t know which goal Rayo should be aiming for, what an offside was, and would often doze off, only to wake up shouting “Penalty!” However, over time, she started catching the football bug—keeping herself informed, watching shows, and analyses, gradually becoming a more typical president. With one exception: due to her modesty, she never entered the locker room with the naked players, stating she didn’t think it was proper. Instead, she waited for them outside, once they were dressed and perfumed, to give them a kiss and congratulate them. But beyond being a lady with coiffed hair, she also showed another side. After a loss, she would support the coach and reprimand the players who wanted him out. “Players are paid to play, not to talk. They can’t have opinions, and they can’t complain when they are paid on time.”
Mrs. Rivero
Mrs. Rivero became a cult figure in the stands of the stadium, and people began to like her. She treated the players like her own children (after all, when you have 13, what’s a few more?), and she became a sympathetic figure. No one believed she was actually running the club, but Rayo was doing well, and the president became a symbol. The team rose to Spain’s top division, La Liga; sometimes it managed to stay up, other times it didn’t, but it always bounced back and generally enjoyed the best years in its history, with regular appearances in La Liga.
She brought in good players, such as Hugo Sanchez (“I won’t lie, I’m 35, I can’t run like I did at 25”), and several good coaches like Juande Ramos and Gregorio Manzano, and generally, the club became well-known, especially when it managed to qualify for Europe through the Fair Play position, even reaching the quarterfinals of the UEFA Cup in 2001.
At the same time, Mrs. Rivero also built and supported Rayo’s women’s team, which performed excellently. Simultaneously, she carried out social work, helping poor people in the Vallecas neighborhood. She personally paid out of her pocket for the fans’ buses to a crucial match for promotion, and she got close to the club’s supporters. The members voted in favor of the proposal to name the club’s stadium after her. With a 74% vote, Rayo’s stadium was renamed “Estadio Teresa Rivero” in 1999. This name would remain until 2011, when the Mateos era came to an end.
A new, ridiculous advertisement was released for the same sweets, featuring the president claiming that the physical fitness of Rayo Vallecano’s players is thanks to these sweets (which supposedly have more protein than yogurt)
The truth is that the club did improve after its acquisition. No one can deny that. However, just like the first Rumasa, the second one began to have problems too. Naturally, so did Rayo. Jesús Gil was proven right about the financial black hole of football. Ruiz Mateos was shifting money between his various companies, moving it from one pocket to another. Much of it likely disappeared into tax havens, and he began struggling to meet his obligations. The housewife, Mrs. Rivero, did what she could and certainly had good ideas, but her sons (six in number), who were involved in Rayo’s daily operations, mismanaged the club, and by 2011 it faced debts of 40 million euros.
In 2017, after the family had already left Rayo, Mrs. Rivero was convicted of tax evasion involving several million euros and was sentenced to a total of seven years in prison. There were numerous financial scandals within the club: black money, player payments with cash in… bags, phantom sponsors, and so on. It is hard to imagine that the housewife with the slippers was the mastermind behind such fraud, but signatures are signatures. Ruiz Mateos was justified in not remaining as president to avoid this, but he had already passed away in the meantime (in 2015) and did not live to see his wife dragged through the courts.
