Could be. I also think Akrum may not have told his mom the full story and now that she knows it, she's fully behind him and his very vocal.
I played on a soccer team that I absolutely hated the coaches and 95% of the players for two years. Anytime my parents asked me about it? “Going great, hopefully this gets me some bigger schools to look at me”.
And I partied with the kids I hated, hung out with them all of the time, never said a word about the coaches almost killing us 4 times a week at practice. Just trying to get that money.