April 13 – Whilst Angel Maria Villar Llona controversially continues to stand in for banned UEFA president Michel Platini despite being sanctioned late last year for failing to co-operate with the official investigation into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid process, his son is reported to have has fallen foul of judicial authorities in Uruguay.
Gorka Villar, secretary-general of CONMEBOL, reportedly failed to meet a citation ordering him to appear before Uruguay’s Court of Organised Crime.
Gorka has been accused by former FIFA vice-president Eugenio Figueredo of extorting eight Uruguayan clubs to withdraw a complaint of corruption filed against CONMEBOL in 2013 .
It is now up to the Uruguayan justice system to decided whether to ask Interpol to issue an international arrest warrant for Gorka Villar who is alleged to have been involved in the theft of thousands of dollars from CONMEBOL’s coffers as well as having destroyed files.
Villar-Llona snr, the veteran Spaniard who is UEFA’s senior vice-president and is temporarily standing in for Platini until the Frenchman resumes his post or elections are held, was warned last year and fined SFr25,000 by FIFA’s ethics committee.
Under its new policy of transparency, FIFA is understood to be uncomfortable with family members holding separate positions of power in order to avoid potential conflicts of interests, and will surely be watching developments in Montevideo carefully.
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