Spanish soccer federation president Luis Rubiales’ elderly mother who had gone on a hunger strike to protest his suspension for his World Cup kissing scandal has been hospitalized, a local priest said.
Ángeles Béjar was taken to the Santa Ana Hospital in Motril Wednesday night after feeling tired and stressed, the cleric, who identified himself as “Father Antonio,” told reporters.
She was discharged at 11:30 p.m. local time after being treated for leg swelling, vomiting, and dizziness, Teledeporte reported.
Béjar has abandoned her hunger strike, the outlet added.
The dramatic hospitalization came 48 hours after Béjar and her sister locked themselves inside Motril’s church of the Divine Shepherdess to protest Rubalias’ treatment in the wake of his World Cup kissing scandal.
The distraught mother was “on a hunger strike and does not want to leave the church,” Rubialies’ cousin told Teledeporte at the time.
Béjar previously pledged to EFE that her protest would last “indefinitely” until the “inhuman, bloodthirsty witch hunt which my son is being subjected to” was over.
Rubiales, 46, was suspended by FIFA for 90 days last week after he faced serious backlash for kissing Spanish women’s soccer player Jennifer Hermoso after the team’s World Cup triumph on Aug. 20.
Hermoso – who looked visibly put off during the bizarre interaction – later denied allegations that the kiss was consensual and said she felt like “a victim of aggression, an impulsive act, sexist, out of place and without any type of consent from my part.”
Over 50 players from Spain’s women’s team also signed a petition vowing to boycott if Rubiales did not resign.
Rubiales, however, insisted that the smooch was “the same as if I have been kissing once of my daughters.”
The former Segunda División defender refused to resign over what he dismissed as a “social assassination” campaign, and threatened legal action against Hermoso and the Futpro union.
“There is no sexual abuse since there is consent on both sides, as the images prove,” Béjar insisted to EFE.
“My son is incapable of hurting anyone.”
The Supreme Sports Council is now looking to have Rubiales ousted as soccer federation president.
“[Rubiales] has hurt a lot of people . He is a person with a very high self-esteem, he is a very conceited man and I knew he was going to get hit,” Rubalies’ uncle, Juan, told Hablando Claro on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Hermoso’s friend, actress Itziar Castro, explained to Europa Press that the 33-year-old midfielder was “quite overwhelmed” by the controversy, and is riding out the media storm with her family.
With Post wires