By Andrew Warshaw
February 14 – The domestic future of long-time FIFA powerbroker Angel Maria Villar will finally be decided on May 22 – meaning he will not have to suffer any embarrassment before the FIFA Congress a few days earlier.
Villar, a senior vice-president of both FIFA and UEFA, wants to extend his 29-year reign in Spain but has long been surrounded by controversy and could be deposed by Jorge Perez, former general secretary of the Spanish FA (RFEF).
Villar briefly ran for UEFA president in 2016 before withdrawing from the race. At home the old-school conservative was in open confrontation with former sports minister Miguel Cardenal and has been under pressure from Spain’s national sports council to name a date for the election.
Having been previously sanctioned by FIFA for failing to co-operate fully with ethics investigators in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding probe, Villar’s stock has faded dramatically though he still holds a FIFA Council position. Last month he discovered that he had been replaced as president of FIFA’s referees’ committee.
It was also recently revealed that Villar and his federation returned €1.2 million of public funds which had been granted to the RFEF by the National Sports Council for development projects supporting the joint 2018 World Cup bid with Portugal. Around €219,000 of the cash was earmarked for a football school in Haiti following the earthquake that devastated that country but Villar has now ordered an investigation into why the money was never actually used to construct the project.
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